More Than Meets The Eye
by Little Wicked Minx
Summary: Bulma is still depressed 1/2 year after her break up w/Yamcha. Vegeta is fed up w/her crying. Together plan revenge on him & maybe they'll discover each other in the process. I've always admired Vegeta and think there's much More to him Than Meets The Eye
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: Don't own DBZ nor the song (_Flinch_ by Alanis Morissette). There is a little part of _Your House_ which is Alanis Morisstte's, too. Prologue 

_What it's been over a decade?_

_It still smarts like it was four minutes ago_

_We only influenced each other totally_

_We only bruised each other even more so_

It has been over half a year, now, and it still hurts as if it was yesterday. True that we were not one for the other, I knew he wasn't my prince in shining armor, but we had spent ten years of our lives together. 

Sometime during those ten years I realized that my dream of wishing for the perfect boyfriend was just that, a dream. I realized that there was no such thing as a perfect nothing, thus, not a perfect boyfriend. So I came to the conclusion that I had found a great thing in him, we were happy together, we had fun, we took care of each other, we loved each other, and so, we were the best we could hope to find.

I still love him, even after what he did.

Knowing the amount of things we had discovered and experienced together and those ten years of our life lived with the other, the least he could have done was to be sincere with me and tell me it was over. But no. I had to go and find him screwing some cheap whore who he had found somewhere during the night and didn't even knew her name. I had trusted him, I had thought that he'd protect me and never ever let anything or anyone to hurt me. He had done so, he had protected me, but in the end, he was the one to hurt me.

The day when I found out everything, I had gone to his house searching for a couple of things I had left there the last time I had gone. I assumed that he was out training so I didn't bother calling, I just took out the key from where I knew he hid it and entered. He, being a famous baseball player, had a house, a little one, but a house, none the less, so at first I didn't hear what was happening upstairs, which gave me time enough to collect all my things. All of a sudden my glaze fell upon a paper on his desk. It read:

  
'Hello love.  
I love you so, love.  
Meet me at midnight.'

  
And no, it wasn't my writing. I was so shocked, I just didn't know what to do. I knew I had entered without permission, maybe I shouldn't have done so, I hadn't thought it was a bad idea before, but now... My logical mind understood what was the meaning of that letter, but my heart refused to believe it. My heart screamed to me that surely he had a good explanation for it, maybe it was just one of his fans... yeah, that had to be it, he would never do something like that to me. And so, I just took my cell of my bag and called his. What would be my surprise to hear his ringing cell upstairs, and then someone just shut it off, without answering. I was stunned. Had he been upstairs all this time?

When I reached the first floor, I started hearing noises, not just cries, but moans and gasps, too low that I hadn't been able to pick them up from downstairs. I followed the noises till his room, opened his door and found him fucking some blonde. I stood there for a few seconds trying to register what was happening right before me, after a few seconds he saw me and his eyes went wide as saucers. That snapped me out of my trance and I just went downstairs, picked up all my things and left.

I know he was expecting me to blow up and scream to him till my face was blue, but I just couldn't do so. He had hurt me really bad, I loved him, I had put all my trust on him, and he had failed me.

Some time after that he called me and told me he wanted to talk to me, he wanted to explain me, so we went for a walk in the park next to my house the next day. I could say he was fairly surprised by the fact that I had been so 'civilized' about all of that and that gave him a slight sense of self assurance. After a while of just walking around in a quiet silence he spoke. He told me that he had intended to tell me about 'the others' as he put it, sometime, but that he had been afraid of my very probable outburst and that he was very happy that he had been wrong about that one. He told me that he had realized that there wasn't that flicker of the beginning, nor the passion or the emotion. Sure, he was comfortable around me, and he did show me all his gratitude for me for being able to make him be over his fear of women. Well, he kept going on for half the afternoon telling me all the things I already knew about how we just got hurt each other more times than we could count, how he was afraid anytime I would burst into a fit of rage at the stupidest things and how he would hurt me once and again by not remembering important things or just by not being able to be the man I really wanted him to be.

Sure, our relationship had been quite rocky, but in our very special way, a stable relationship none the less. And that's what he did not see, the fact that the passion he was searching for would never last, that you could never find just the person you really, really want, and that what we had he won't have with anyone else. Neither will I. Of course, I kept all this to myself and waited patiently for him to finish. When he was finished I could see relief written all over his face and with a bright smile he looked at me and asked me if we could still be friends. I nodded and he pecked me on the cheek and left.

I came back home and went straight for my room, locked myself in it and didn't come out till the next evening, all spent and after crying all my tears. He didn't realize what he had given up, but I did.

_What are you my blood? You touch me like you are my blood_

_What are you my dad? You affect like your are my dad_

_How long can girl be shackled to you_

_How long before my dignity is reclaimed_

_How long can a girl stay haunted by you_

_Soon I'll go on and I won't even flinch at your name_

_Soon I'll go on and I won't even flinch at your name_

But as I was saying, after more than six months, the pain isn't gone, and I just keep wondering when did he gain this control over me, when did he learn to affect me this way, when I became so shackled to him.

The first weeks after we broke up were very hard. I just stayed at home and concentrated  on my work at the lab. All my projects were suddenly updated, all the work at my office was done and I was just searching for new customers and new projects to start with. The reason why I pushed myself under such a load of work was because, while working, I couldn't think of anything else. I knew I had let him go without much resistance, I knew that I could have fight for him, to make him understand what I knew, I could, at least, have told him what I thought, but that afternoon, in the park, while he told me everything I realized that I couldn't make him change his mind. He had to come to the same conclusion as myself on his own, he had to see that I am the best one for him, as I know he is the best one for me. But, even knowing I had a good reason for what I had done, knowing that, with time he'd be back to me (of that I was, and still am, sure) I couldn't help spending my spare time thinking about what could have been, about all the things we'd miss, about what I'd do from now on... about how lonely I felt then.

That was the worst part of everything. The loneliness. At work I didn't have time to realize it, but whenever I walked out from my lab I just felt it, like a heavy weight upon my shoulders. I had been with him for the last ten years. Whether we were a lovely couple or having an argument, or just couldn't see each other for a while, I always knew he was there. If I needed something he'd come and help me, if I was upset he'd comfort me, if I just needed a pair of strong arms surrounding me... I'd find his around myself. 

That was the worst, for sure. And if I couldn't handle this feeling during the day, night was unbearable. I just longed for two arms around my waist, for a warm body beside mine in the bed, for a warm breath upon my neck... My bed was cold, my room was cold, all the house was so cold. I kept remembering how his hands were always warmer than my owns when he touched me, how my skin would tingle whenever he caressed me, how good it felt to have his hands on my waist, my head on his shoulder and my body pressed against his hard chest.

Now I just had myself to comfort me, well, besides my parents, but it was not what I needed. I spent my nights holding myself in bed and crying myself to sleep... alone.

_So here I am one room away from where I know you're standing_

_A well-intentioned man told me you just walked in_

_This man knows not of how this information has affected me_

_But he knows the colour of the car I just drove away in_

_What are you my kin? You touch like you are my kin_

_What are you my air? You affect me like you are my air_

But well, that was just the first weeks. Time went by, and I grew used to the loneliness. It's not like I don't feel it now, it's just that I can push it to the far end of my head, so that I can live without realizing it is there that much.

With him, things are quite difficult, yet. Even though we are still 'friends', every time the whole gang go to Master Roshy's for a family reunion or just to party and get to know what's up, and I see a new slut hooked form his arm, or whenever I catch a glimpse of him on the TV in one of those sports reports, with all his fans all over him and he is just drooling over them, I just can't help but to run for my room and lock myself till I can compose myself again and I am able to go out.

And it is not as if I could hide from him or something. I mean: we live in the same city, have the same friends, go to the same social parties... I'm the richest woman in the world, he is one of the most famous baseball players in the country, it's like I find him wherever I go, and I can't run away from him every time we are bound to be in the same room, right?

_How long can a girl be tortured by you_

_How long before my dignity is reclaimed_

_How long can a girl be haunted by you_

_Soon I'll go on and I won't even flinch at your name_

_Soon I'll go on and I won't even flinch at your name_

It is so fucking embarrassing, the way I am rendered to him, it seems as if I don't have any kind of dignity in anything in which he is involved. I know I am not that kind of girl, I am strong willed, I have a cunning mind and I have quite a temper. Half the city is afraid from my 'outbursts', while the other half admire me for my genius and my beauty. I know I'm quite the catch and that I could get whoever I wanted. I am a proud woman and don't let anybody control me or know my weak points (it is hard enough to make yourself a place in this business when you are a woman in a men world, and the daughter of the most famous and rich scientific, at that, with them thinking you have non of them).

But all of it comes down crashing whenever he is nearby. I just hate this feeling. I have to move over this, over him, and keep on with my life. I know he has done so without even a second thought.

I just don't know how to do it. He's done so, and he's dated half the population in the city: that is nearly every woman in between 20 and 40. I just can't do that. I don't feel like going out with any of these men at my door. They want me because I'm my father's daughter, and the only one at that, or because they want a good lay, or to be famous, and so on. I could continue for days, but there would be nothing in my list such as 'because she is so intelligent and funny' or 'because we come along so well' or 'because she completes me' or 'because I love you with all my soul'. None of them know me in the least, none of them care about me, and that's all I want, that's what I had, that's what I don't know how to get over. 

But I know I'll find a way, a way to get over all of this, a way to be able to feel happy, a way to get over the loneliness...

A way to be me again.

_Soon I'll go on and I won't even flinch at your name_

_Soon I'll go on and I won't even flinch at your name_

**-------------------**

Ok, this is my first fic, so I'd appreciate some feedback, either if you like it or if you don't (constructive criticism will be very valuable). I know this chapter may have been a little sappy, but I intend to do something more on the line of humor, or at least nothing sappy... this is just a little prologue! Next chapters will be better, I hope ^_^


	2. The Plan

Disclaimer: Don't own DBZ.

The Plan

That woman has been like this for what seems like forever. At first it was easy to avoid her or her constant whining because during the day she was either at work or locked in her room, and at night I just had to stay a little longer in the GR till she cried herself to sleep. That was a slight variation to my routine, but it could be done. 

Now, however, it isn't this easy. Though I can still avoid her during the day, she doesn't cry herself to sleep anymore. It seems that her tears finally dried. Now she spends nearly all her nights whining, and moaning as if she were in great pain or something. 

It's driving my crazy.

It's not that I care for her, it's that I care for me, and that I need a little rest, not very much, that's true, but four or five hours after a hard training day seem quite right, don't they? She's in the room next to mine, so I can hear nearly everything that happens in there. With all the noise she makes I just can't sleep. It's not just my keen sayian hearing, but the fact that I have spent nearly all my life on a spaceship, in the middle of that soundless void called space and surrounded by threats and dangers nearly 24/7. 

When this started my pride told me not to go in there because that might seem as if I care of what she's going through, which I suppose has something to do with the weakling, and that I could go for a while with little to no rest. I am a warrior, after all, and I cope with little privations such like this. But a warrior is a man, in the end, and as a man, I have my limits (even if I don't like to admit so). If this goes on any longer I think I'll end up falling on my butt as soon as I get the GR started! So that's it!!! To hell with what she might think, I am going to that room, and she'll get a piece of my mind, that's for sure!!

So, I go out my room and down the hall until I reach her door. I'm still a little hesitant about this, but as I am trying to make up my mind another burst of moans comes from her door, and that's about all I needed. I enter her room without even knocking to find her in some kind of fetal position on her bed, with puffy, red eyes and an empty pot of something called 'Belgian chocolate ice-cream' nearby. The sight is absolutely pathetic.

I can see that she is quite surprised at seeing me here. Normally I would have expected an outburst or something, some high yelling at me because entering a 'lady's bedroom' without knocking. Of course, that would have been before this all started. I haven't had a decent argument with the woman since I don't know when, and as much as I loath myself for admitting this, I miss them. Well, all her reaction is to stare at me as if I had grown another head or something, I bet she thinks I'm here out of worry. I'll erase those thoughts of her mind in a moment.

"Onna, what the hell is all this whining every night? I'm so fucking tired of hearing you day in and day off!! What the hell do you think? that people around you are deaf or something? Well, we are not, and all this noise you are making makes it nearly impossible to get some sleep, if you just wanted to get rid of me, there are better and more dignified ways of doing so, so I demand that you stop with all that emotional stuff right now! Have I made myself clear enough?"

When I finish I can say she is on the verge of tears. That's definitely not the reaction I wanted to get out of her. Damn, damn, damn!!! Now I think I have upset her even more so... now she'll be whining for the rest of my life!... I think I'll go crazy! Damn!!!!! 

I just don't know what to do, but in the end it's her who talks.

"I'm sorry Vegeta, I didn't know I was being such an annoying hostess, and a selfish one, at that. I'm really sorry that I don't let you sleep. I'd be really glad to stop, believe me, it's just that I can't seem to be able to make myself do so. It's so frustrating!!!"

And she starts to cry now, really hard, if I must say. The little control she had managed during all this months slipping away as she tells me this. Now I just want her to shut up, so I try to make her mind follow another line of thought. "Well, if you want to stop all this crap, why haven't you? It's not as if you hadn't had time enough for it! Nothing can be that bad so that you can't get over it in all this time! You really must be even more weak and pathetic that I thought!" I spat, though not as venomously as I had intended.

She then stops crying and looks at me. "Well, you put it very easy, don't you? But it isn't this easy! It's very hard, in fact!" Now I'm getting a good reaction out of her, I think this last remark really did it. Good, with a little luck I'll have some days of quiet. That will be enough. But she isn't finished yet. "Damn! You don't even know what my problem is, do you? No, not of course! How could you interest yourself in someone else's problems? What a waste of your precious time, right? And how could you understand all that I am going through you insensible monkey! Well, as you made the effort to walk all the way to my room to let me know how pathetic I am, I'll let you know the reason for all of this: I found Yamcha fucking some slut in his house!!! There, are you happy?"

"Hn, so that's it, uh? I realize that that surely has to be something hard to get over. I mean the sight of that disgusting excuse of a warrior in bed must be... hard to forget! I understand now what has taken you so much time, but I think that you should be able to get over seeing 'that' by now." I smirk at her, knowing that is surely going to set her off. Here we go...

"YOU... JERK!!! It is obvious that is NOT the problem!!! I admit the sight was slightly disturbing and quite disgusting and... uh... BUT THAT'S NOT THE POINT, DO YOU HEAR ME? The point is that he was cheating on me, the point is that we had been together for ten years, the point is that I trusted him, the point is that now I feel like... I mean he... I.... something... something is missing, you know? Not, of course you don't know! I just don't know why I'm telling you all of this!"

"Well onna, I don't know why either, but anyway, I think it was your own fault for trusting him. That's what happens when you trust people... they fail you. And this missing thing... what you miss is probably a lot of water from all the tears you've cried, you must be dehydrated! "

I expect a sharp remark about this, but surprisingly, she bursts out laughing so hard that she has to hold her sides. I am slightly stunned, but I guess that this is better than before... At the end, she finally calms down and is able to speak.

"Well Vegeta, I sure didn't expect that one, you know? It was kind of funny, and now that I think about it, you can probably be right." I snort at that, of course I'm right, what is she thinking? "But you don't understand what I mean when I say that something is missing and that I can't get over this... how could I explain it to you so that your tiny brain could comprehend it?... hmmm... wait!!! I know, if you're half the prince you claim to be you'll get it this way: imagine you still had your planet. You would be king by now, wouldn't you?" I skeptically nod at that. I'm not sure if I'm going to like this explanation. And what was that about me being half the prince I claim? Is she challenging me? 

"Well, so you are the king of your planet, ok? And imagine you have an ally. A planet that gives your planet some material that isn't available in your own, so you need him. You two have been allies for a lot of years now, so you trust the other planet, but someday you find out that they have decided that what your planet could offer was not enough for them, so they have made other allies and now that you have find it out they are free to do what they want. You are not allies anymore, of course, and you can get over them failing your trust in a while, that's pretty obvious, but there is still that material they gave you, that you don't have. You can't get over that, because you need the material and there is no way to make it by yourself. It doesn't matter the amount of time that goes by, this isn't going to fade away, and it's not as if you would go crawling to them for help on this, right? Do you understand me now?"

Well... that sure was a good explanation, I get it. But I, being the strategist I was taught to be, can't help to look for a fitting solution for the problem, had I had it. Of course I am still thinking in a political way, but... "Yes onna, I do understand you, but if it were the case and I were king of my planet as it should be, I'd find a solution. That's for sure. For starters, usually there isn't just one planet in all the universe who can provide some kind of material, so I would go and find someone else who could provide for me.  I suppose that if I weren't with them in the first place is probably because those traitors were the ones who better suited me, so I'm going to make them back. Of course, my race is a proud one, so I won't go begging! In the least! What I'll do is get my revenge on them, humiliate them and make THEM come to ME begging to be allies again."

The woman seems deep in thought as I finish... "Wow Vegeta, I didn't think you could come up with something like that, you know?" 

WHAT!!!! How dares she say that to me? I'm a great strategist, and I was trained to be king, of course I can solve some minor problem like that without further shame for my people! "Onna! During my years at Vegeta-sei my father brought me the best teachers in all and every subject that could be of some kind of use to me in the future! My father made sure that my people would have had the best king!"

"I see... well, if you are sooooo very good tell me, how would you solve MY problem, uh?"

"Hn, you really are helpless, aren't you? Not only physically weak, but also you have very little resources. That's simple onna, my plan applied to the weakling would be something like: you go and pick another man, someone better than him – which means nearly everybody, so that shouldn't be that difficult" I smirk at that and I can say that she is ready to snap something, but then she stops herself and takes a deep breath... I guess she must be really desperate if she is so interested in what I can say... "Well, you must get to parade this man in front of the weakling as much as you can, show him how this man is so much better, making everybody see that, and have this man pretend that you are the only thing that exists for him...-that will quite harder, hn?- in time the weakling will just end up coming to you again, even begging you to take him back."

"... wow!!! Vegeta, that's a great plan, you know? I mean going around with someone better than him, and showing him that someone better could just look at me! It's saying something like I'm the best catch around, right? And besides, not even I don't have to put my pride aside, but it will be him who will beg me!!!  Really Vegeta, all those teachers surely made a good job with you! Now all I have to do is..."

I zone out at her chattering... Really I don't know why she didn't think of something like this by herself... and all this crap about this 'special thing'... this ningens are so very strange... I bet is something related to this damn emotions they use so much! Ha, that just makes me see how this emotions make you weak, as I thought. Oh well, I hope that now that she has a plan she will let me sleep... It has been quite disturbing to have to help her... I mean I have been almost civilized around her for what? Half an hour? That surely surpasses what I would have deemed appropriate, but neither she nor I were our normal selves, she is... well, like this... and I am sleep deprived so... what the hell! In times of need...

Suddenly she cuts my train of thought. She has been talking out loud for a while, now, I just didn't pay attention to her, but as she calls my name I look up to her. She is looking at me with expectant eyes and a bright smile upon her face. She seems another. 

"What do you want now, onna?" I'm not in the mood for this crap any longer.

"Well, I have been thinking about that pretending thing, looking for a man that would suit my necessities, it has to be someone really well built and quite strong, and someone who doesn't like Yamcha so that he'll agree to this, and who won't fall for myself, 'cause this is just pretending and I will end up with Yamcha, right?"

"Stop flattering yourself, woman? Who could fall for you? And besides, why are you telling me this? I have already helped you, I just don't wanted to hear you anymore! I could care less what kind of man you choose!"

"But Vegeta! You don't understand it!! You are the perfect man for this!!!"

"WHAT???!!!" Now, she's gone crazy for sure!!! "What are you talking about onna? Has this much crying affected your mind or something? Do you expect ME, the Prince of all Sayians, to parade around so that you can get your stupid cheating boyfriend back? Well, keep on dreaming!"

"Oow!! But Vegeta!!! You are the perfect man for this! You are so strong and well built, better than him, that's for sure, and you hate his guts, so you could get a lot of fun humiliating him this much, you know how good it would be to tell him that his ex-girlfriend has got over him with the man he hates the most!!! His face would be one to remember!"

Well, she's got a point there... it's been a while since I have been able to torture someone, to play with them and hurt them were it hurts the most, and since I can't kill anybody on this mud ball it would be quite interesting to toy around with the weakling's mind... hmmm...

"Okay onna, I'll do it, but on my terms, ok?"

"Well, that's fair, what would them be?"

"For starters, I am not going to waste training time, so if you want to tell me something you'll have to wait till I get out of the GR. Second, I won't embarrass myself in the least, got it? Whatever you want me to do, we'll have to talk about it before so that there won't be any surprises, understood? Oh, and this little parading show will be something between the two of us, I don't want anybody knowing of this supposed relationship!"

"Ok, it can be done... just a couple of things: I know you don't want to waste your training time, but if we have to parade in front of Yamcha we'll have to go out on 'dates' at some reasonable times, so I'll wait to talk to you till your are finished with the training, but you'll have to skip it the days we put the plan in action, deal?"

I'm not very satisfied with that last one, but I guess that is necessary to go out if this has to work in the least... "Deal."

"Yay!!! Mission 'Revenge on Yamcha and make him beg me' is set up!!!"

-----------------

Well, that's it for the second chapter. I should say that I already had these two chapters written, that's why I've been able to post them so quickly, but I'm quite slow when it comes to write, so don't expect the next chapter in less than a week, and still :^p. On the other hand, these two have been rather short and I hope to make the next chapters longer. I think that from now on things will start to develop a little... I know that the beginning is quite slow, hope that it's not that much boring (that's what I feared when I read it).

Oh! And thank you very much to those who reviewed my first chapter, I really appreciate it a lot! THANK YOU! 


	3. Preparations

Disclaimer: Don't own DBZ.

**Preparations**

The next morning Bulma woke up more refreshed than she had felt in a long, long time. Now she had a plan! Someway to get things as they should be. She felt happy again!

She got up and walked to her window. It was quite a beautiful day, spring was in its fullest, and the weather could not be better, so she decided to take a quick shower and dress up, so that she could start with the day and her preparations for her plan. She decided to wear some baggy jeans and a bright blue top with a fighting girl in the front and reading 'I'm gonna rock you'. ~ That sure is the spirit, girl! ~ she thought while she took a last look at the mirror.

She went down to the kitchen. She had overslept, today, and it was past noon ~ oh well, after all I have gone through I deserve the rest, right? ~ Her mother was in the kitchen making lunch.

"Good morning, honey! Well, should I say good afternoon? – giggles – Don't worry, I think it was time for you to have a good rest, you've been working too hard, lately. Oh! And what's with your clothes? You look really well, you know? Geez, maybe it is the day, or maybe it's been the night!!!!" Ms Briefs giggles again and turns back to washing the dishes from the lunch... an awfully big lunch...

Bulma stared at her mother strangely... at first she'd been utterly happy that it was so obvious that her mood had changed for good, that meant she no longer had the face and looks of a zombie as she had had these last months (that was another thing that contributed to her depression), but what had set her off was that last comment... What had that meant? And that way of saying it... her mother had something on mind, and there was something that Bulma didn't know... and she didn't like it one bit!

"Well, yes, I've got a really good night, tonight.  The best in a long time, really..." she answered hesitantly.

Her mother then turned to her and hugged her real hard. "Oh!!! I knew it!!! I'm so very happy! Since I saw him enter the kitchen this morning with that good mood and I noticed you sleeping in, I knew it!"

What?!! That didn't make any sense at all! What was she talking about? Him? Who was him?!! She was utterly confused... till an idea enter her mind ~ NO!!! She can't be thinking this! That's so stupid... sure, mom is not the most smart person in the world but this is down right ridiculous! ~  "MOM!! What are you talking about? This has nothing to do with any 'him' you can come up with... and if you are even suggesting the 'him' I think you are suggesting... you must be crazy or something!!!"

"What? Ooooh! So you and that young handsome man we're housing are not---"

Bulma cut her at that, she couldn't even hear that! She and Vegeta?! Yugh! "NO!! Of course not mom! For god's sake! We hate each others guts! He's a murderer, and an arrogant, cocky bastard!! It's just that I had a good night of REST, tonight, which I hadn't had in a while. And besides, I just found a way out of some little problems I was having and that's why I'm in so good mood! And talking of good moods, did you just say that Vegeta was in a good mood this morning?"

"Yes! Well, as much of a good mood as he can have... it's just that he'd become more moody and cranky than usual, lately. He's just so very serious... it's a pity! Though I must admit that it suits him... his dark mood with his dark appearance, with those dark eyes – giggles – I shouldn't be saying all this! – giggles again – Oh honey, and what was that about some problems? Do you need any help?"

"No mom, don't worry, as I said I've come up with a solution... kind of, so it's all under control, now. Well, I'm going to give me a break, so if dad asks for me tell him that tomorrow I'll be back to work, ok?"

"Sure honey, have a nice time!"

With that Bulma left the house. She was glad her mother hadn't asked too much. Her parents lived in the second floor of the house, while she and Vegeta shared the third floor. That's why Vegeta was the only one who had known that something was very wrong with her. She knew he wouldn't bother her, so it suited her just fine. She put up a happy face in front of the rest of the family, but anyway she knew that she wasn't at her best and it showed, that's why she had been so happy about her mother reaction to her looks. Though considering what her mother had said about _Vegeta_'s looks... gosh!!! 

Anyway, now the first thing she had to do was to think and plan what she was about to do. Vegeta had given her the main idea, and had told her to talk with him about anything they had to do, but she still had to come up with the ideas to make it work. ~ Before we start with the faking, I think I should prepare myself. If this has to be believable, the first thing I need to do is to get over Yamcha!! Well, not exactly get over him, I mean the main purpose of all this is to get him back, but just to be able to see him without breaking down... yeah, that would be it! Great!! But how do I do that? ~ 

In the meanwhile Bulma had been walking through CC gardens and surroundings, and had finally arrived near the swimming-pool. She had come to a dead end in her thinking. She knew what to do, but didn't know how to do it. She looked at her surroundings and saw a couple of chairs near the pool, with some towels on them. It wasn't hot enough to get in the water, yet, but lying on the grass enjoying the first warm rays of sun of the year sounded pretty good to her. Sometimes she thought she was like a flower: she needed the sun to be happy. Winters were so very sad and lonely and depressing and, mostly, gray. That's what she hated most of the winter, that everything was gray, 'cause there was no sun to light up all the colors and oh, how she loved bright colors, they give a happy shade to your life, right? So she took one of the towels, laid it on the grass and laid herself on it, with her hands behind her head and her eyes closed, enjoying the warn feeling all over her body...

~ mmmm... that feels just great... this is the best I've felt in a while... I should quit comparing to how I was until yesterday, it' won't do me any good. The old me is clearly not going to bring me nothing good... look at how it ended with Yamcha! I was too much dependant on him... I should get to be more independent... yeah, I'm not a frail little woman who needs of a man to do anything, or I least I don't want to be! That's it, all this time I've been acting like a defenseless lady, and a dependant one at that, when I wasn't clinging to Yamcha like a girl with her first crush, I'm asking dad to help me out of all my problems... Oooooh, this is going to change right now! The old Bulma is going out the window, here comes the new one!!! And the first thing will be a new look, what a better way to change myself than to see me different? ~ 

With that decided she stood up and headed for the house. She took a jacket, just in case, the capsule of her car and some empty ones for her shopping, and left to the mall. She decided she'd start with a nice massage and some bubble bath at her favorite salon  before changing everything: starting with new clothes, new shoes, even new make-up and, of course, new hairdo. And as she'd be buying all this, she'd set the mood for her new her and decide about the others things that she needed to do.

~*~

Meanwhile, Vegeta was in the GR training as usual. Today he was very well. He'd slept five hours straight after his 'talk' with the woman and hell, was he rested! He'd been going for more than half the day and still could go for the other half without stopping. Definitely, talking with that damn woman was the best he could have done, for both their sakes, and their health. The fact that now he was stuck with her little plans and that he was going to 'help' her get the weakling back was slightly bothering him, but he'd said he'd do it, so there was none other choice, not in his mind.

~*~

It was past dinner time when she arrived home that day. She'd stayed at the mall till the last of the shops there had closed. She was tired, her feet ached, as well as her back, all her capsules where filled to the limit, and her credit card was burned out, but she was completely satisfied! After a lot of musing and thinking – and buying, of course – she had come to a decision and a plan had started to form on her mind. ~ All right Bulma. It is time for a change! You're not going to depend on someone anymore... on anyone! I realize that you can't do everything by yourself... I'm not denying your need for help, I've just decided that you're going to reduce it to the least. While going out with Yamcha you had relied on him to protect you from everything in the world... he was kind of your shield to the big, ugly world out there... well, you're nearly thirty, now, a grown up woman, and can face that world yourself. This means no more playing the weak, distressed woman, no more relying on Yamcha, or _daddy_ or anyone to take your butt off of your problems AND no more living in _daddy_'s home and having _mommy_ take care of you. 

I'm well aware that you cannot change all your life from night to day... things need to be done at their own time, so you're going to start by the easiest and work your way through the others. First thing is moving out. This is the easiest... you're going to build yourself a house... CC has a pretty big factory of encapsulated houses, so you're going to design yourself a house and in a matter of a week, maybe two, you'll have your new home. 

You want your independence, but that doesn't mean you're going nuts, so you're just going to pick your house and put it at somewhere in the forest of CC lawns, maybe near the lake. That will provide you independence and privacy, which suits your motives perfectly, 'cause you're going to take your Saiyan guest with you. It will make your acting more believable if Yamcha thinks you're living together, alone, and will keep others of knowing what is going on. 

You'll have to talk about this with Vegeta, though, and he isn't going to like this in the least, I'm sure of that, and you should also talk with him about the second step... Oh what the Hell!!! I'm talking to myself, now. Great!!! ~ She had unpacked all her new things by now, and looked to the clock. It was well past midnight, her parents were asleep by now, and Vegeta was going to quit his training for the day soon, so she decided she'd do a little dinner for the both of them and she'd talk with him after eating. He couldn't say no, that was the plan, after all, and he had agreed to it.

~*~

Later that day he entered the house after a whole day of hard training to find the woman with both their dinners set on the table. ~ So the little minx is feeling better, huh? Looks like she went out... at least she got rid of that ridiculous hairdo, straight isn't as annoying... Hn, a change was in order I see... She must have been thinking about my idea. Now the question is whether the change is gonna be for the better or not. ~ 

He didn't say any of it aloud, just sat and dug in the food. They ate in silence for a while, both deep in thought. When she finished she got up, took her plates to the sink and went to the next room where the main freezer was, while he finished his own meal. By the time she came back he had already finished and his plates where in the sink, too, waiting for her, though (at least they'd get him to take them to the sink. Thank God for little miracles).

She ignored them for now and went back to the table, instead, and put a pot in front of the Saiyan Prince.

He had known all along that if she'd done his dinner and waited for him was just because she wanted to talk to him about her plan with her baka boyfriend, therefore he'd stayed at the table after he'd finished. However, he'd been puzzled when she had come and put that thing in front of him. He could recognize it from seeing it the night before when he'd entered her room, it was that 'Belgian Chocolate' thing, but he didn't know what it was, and by the looks it was pretty cold, probably it was still frozen, so he gave her a questioning look. 

"It's chocolate ice-cream, Vegeta, a dessert. Try it, I'm sure you'll like it, I love it and it helps me think. Try not to eat it too fast 'cuz you'll get a brain freeze."

So he took the spoon and did as he was told. Surprisingly the woman had been right, he liked it. In fact, he tought it was one of the better things he'd ever tasted, so he just snorted at her inquisitive stare and kept eating. After a while, though, he was the one to look at her.

~*~

She could feel his eyes on her. She knew that he'd been well aware through all dinner of which her purpose was, but hadn't said anything. Until now, that is. Now he wanted her to say whatever it was she had to say. She'd been preparing for it, but was not that much sure of how to approach the subject, yet. Finally, she drew up all her determination and decided to just blurt it out.

"Vegeta, I've been thinking the whole day. At first about what you told me yesterday, later on about my own life. You had a point in what you said, you know... I mean, about not going to humiliate myself any further, and I've realized that up until now I've been too dependant on everybody around me: dad, Goku and the guys, Yamcha... Well, that's about to end! From now on I'm going to be more independent and to grow stronger. Yamcha will see that all those sluts he goes out with can't compare to me. 

That's not an easy task, I know. First thing in my list is moving on my own. I've already been thinking about how the new house will be and where will I put it. I've even started the design. I will move out in a couple of weeks..."  ~ So far so good... he seems quite 'pleased' with my decisions, or at least he seems to agree. The hard part is still to come, though... ~ "...and you're moving out with me." 

Vegeta was left astounded! He had been agreeing with her throughout her little monologue until that thing about moving out together. What had that to do with anything?! "Onna, what the hell are you talking about? Moving out? The two of us? Why?!!! That's ridiculous. If you need to grow up that's fine with me, but I left _daddy_'s home a long time ago, and I'm pretty well in here, so I'm not going anywhere."

She knew something like this would come, and had prepared herself for it. "Vegeta, you're not looking at this from the appropriate point of view. I'm going to move to the forests of CC, so you'll be by yourself nearly all day: without workers all around you and me gone to work."

"Hai, I must sat that that's appealing, onna, but that also means that there won't be anybody to repair the GR or to make me lunch, and that it will take longer to either you or your father to repair or upgrade the machine and the robots because you'll have to bring it all there. I cannot afford to loose all that training time."

"That wouldn't be a problem; I can give you a private phone line to my lab so that if there is any problem I can be there within moments. Besides, I can't leave you here with my parents. They're old and need peace and quiet and can't be keeping track on what you do and on your demands."

"That's a lot of bullshit, onna. The quiet and peace you talk about haven't been here for the whole year I've been living with you. Every time I exit the GR I can hear you bitching at the top of your lungs about one thing or another, and it can be heard from all over the house..."

"You can hear it every time you exit the GR because it's YOU who makes me mad and who I bitch at and about."

"But it's still loud and doesn't give any peace, right? So then! And for my demands... they've been doing pretty well, so far, I don't think it would be a problem."

~ Damn him! He's got an answer for everything I throw at him, and pretty good ones, may I add. Grrrr! But I've been preparing for this all evening and still have an ace up my sleeve. ~

"True Vegeta. Now tell me: how would you like me to leave you here, all alone so that there would be no-one to distract mom when she's 'chatting' with you? I'm sure you'd love to hear about the fancy shoes she bought and how well they match her new purse. I know she likes to chat with you so much, you're such a good listener!" She ended faking her happy mother's voice and putting her hands together in imitation of her posture.

~ Shit! That woman got me there. I hadn't thought of it, but the damn blonde can make my live living hell with her high pitched voice and that too happy face all day! – shudders at that thought -  ~

~ Aha! I got him here, I knew it! Has he just shuddered? Oh man, this victory is mine! Just one last little push... ~

"Moreover, if we move out together we can put our plan into action and nobody will notice a single thing, just as you wanted."

"Fine, onna. We'll move out in a couple of weeks. Up until then, though, and considering we'll be living 'together' – shudders – for quite some time, I don't want to know any of you, ok? We'll talk about what we do once we move into the new house."

With that said he stood up and went upstairs without waiting for her reply.

~ Ouch! I didn't get to talk to him about second step! Hn, he's so much of a bad loser!!! Oh well, I guess that one thing at a time is enough as it is, and at least he agreed to this. Well then, to bed right now! Tomorrow I got a lot of things to do, I must have a new home ready in two weeks! ~

--------**--------

Two weeks passed by quickly for her. She'd been awfully busy. To move out was not as simple as she'd envisioned it. Aside from designing and building the house, she had had to go choose where to put it and have the place leveled. She had chosen a spot by the lake in CC, just where the forest ended and the shore started. It was a very beautiful place with trees all around the house and an awesome view of the shore and the lake from the living room, and the house would fit perfectly there. In summer she'd have her private beach to sunbathe and swim and read all by herself. There was such a quiet in there!

She'd been also pretty busy selecting and buying all the furniture, curtains, towels, blankets... After all, it was a new house she had to make her _home._

She had also had to talk to her parents about her plans. They had been really happy about her moving on her own and said it was proof of her maturity after all, but had also been a tad sad about their 'little baby leaving the nest' as her father had put it. Bulma thought that what saddened the man the most was that his 'little baby' wasn't a baby anymore. All in all, they'd been overjoyed... until the 'Vegeta' subject had come up. When she told them that he was going to live with her, her mother had squealed happily about how she'd have grandchildren soon. Both Bulma and Dr. Briefs had stared horrified at her, but she didn't notice as she was in her own world trotting upstairs already. Her father, on the other hand, hadn't been too excited about it, but Bulma convinced him that it was the best for all of them and that nothing would happen.

Anyway, the two weeks had come and gone and it had finally arrived: the day when she moved to live on her own. She was very excited. She'd got up early in the morning and had packed all her things (including some of her current projects from her lab to work at _home_) and put them all in capsules. When she finished she had a fair amount of them, threw them in her little bag and it over her shoulder. It was a curious scene to say the least, seeing her moving out with just a little bag hung from her shoulder.

The house was within walking distance, but it was quite the walk and she had a lot to unpack and set ready for living, so she decided she'd pick her motorbike. Before, though, she had to go and tell Vegeta to pack and leave for she had stayed clear of him for the whole two weeks as he had requested and so he didn't know yet. She approached the GR and shut it down. That got her what he wanted: the Saiyan Prince demanding answers.

"Vegeta, calm down, I just wanted to let you know that you're moving to the new house today. It is..."

He didn't let her finish, though. "Fine, onna. I'll be there at dinner time with all my things. I'll find it, I can track your ki if it's necessary."

"Right... well, I'll be waiting you, then. We have some 'chit chat' to do, remember?"

"Hn... then get me some of that ice-cream. It's good enough to make it bearable to talk with you."

With that he thought the conversation was over so he was on his way back to train when he heard a muttered 'jerk' and so, grunted a 'bitch' and closed the door to the GR.

~*~

It was around 9.00 p.m. when he decided to call it a day. It was way earlier than his usual quitting time, but the woman had something to tell him and he'd said that he'd cut his training sessions short if it was necessary.

He went to his room to pack his things. At first he'd intended on showering too, but had decided it'd be easier and quicker to do it in the new house. He didn't have much to pack, just a few training suits and whatever he'd had with himself when he was wished from Namek. The woman had given him some clothes along the lines of that pink shirt she had made him wear when he came back from space, but all that stuff was gonna stay in CC. He wasn't gonna wear again, that was for sure.

So, in a matter of minutes he had everything packed, went out the window and to the GR, encapsulated it, and took off to where he felt the woman's ki.

Soon he arrived to a huge lake surrounded by a thick forest, and there, just where the forest began, half hidden from view, was a house. It was a two-story house, made out of wood and not very big. It was nothing like the CC building: this was what you'd call 'a traditional house', more like a cottage, built so that it blended with it's surroundings as much as possible as not to disturb the views.

Upon entering he stood in a huge room the size of the house, there where no walls in the fisrt floor. There was a kitchen to one side and a huge table with some chairs to the other, distributed as to make them two different spaces even though there were no walls. At the far end of the room there was a third space, put in a way so that it had a warm air about it. It had a fireplace to one side, with some armchairs looking at it from nearly the other side, standing just in front of some shelves, and in between, looking to the far wall there was a plush sofa and a little table. 

The far wall was made entirely out of glass giving an awesome view of the lake. From his position at the entrance, Vegeta could make out some chairs through the glass where he assumed was some kind of porch.

Where the kitchen ended there where the stairs to the second floor. He went up and found himself at the middle of a hallway. There were three doors to both sides and a last one just in front of him.

He could sense the woman in one of the rooms to his right so he went to the left and opened the first door. The room was empty, so he went to the second door. This one was a bathroom and the last one was a bedroom. It had a king sized bed made of some kind of dark wood, with royal blue silk blankets and some black cushions. To the right there was a huge wardrobe made of the same good as the bed, and next to it there was a door that he guessed connected with the bathroom he'd entered before. To the left there was a nightstand and a desk, and in between there was a glass door that led to the balcony outside, just above the porch. The balcony continued along all that side of the house and lead to another door at the other side, a door from where he could feel her ki, so he assumed that that was her bedroom and so, the one from which he'd come was his.

Good. He liked the house. It was rather simple, without anything unnecessary, yet it didn't lack anything, either, and everything in the house was visibly strong, of good quality, fit for a prince. More over, the place was really quite and he found his room very suitable. So, after admiring the views for a few moments he reentered, unpacked his few belongings and went to have his shower.

~*~

Bulma smiled to herself when she heard the shower a few rooms down the hallway. She was glad he had 'approved' of the new house, as was proof the fact that he had no entered her room hollering about how did she expect the Prince of all Saiyans to live in a place like this. Besides, he was having a shower, so he must had kind of settled in his room, already. She hadn't expected him to make himself noted in any way upon his arrival at the house and had decided to leave her settling in her room for the last, this way she would be out of his way while he took a look of the house. 

She had designed it taking into account his needs as much as hers. That was why she had made kind of two winds to the second floor: to the right it was her wind, with her bedroom, bathroom and a study room. To the left it was his, with his bedroom and bathroom, as well, and a third room she'd left empty so that he could make whatever he wanted of that one. In between the two wings there was a last room which she had intended as a common room of a sorts. Yes, there was the whole first floor for them to 'enjoy' each other company, but the first floor was 'public' space because that would be the space which anyone visiting them would see. She had wanted something they both could enjoy that it was more private. The problem was that she didn't know him well enough to know what kind of space that would be, so she had left it empty for the time being. Maybe it had been foolish of her to design such a room, maybe she would just end up converting it in some kind of home lab or something for herself.

Anyway, she was quite proud of the end result.

Now for the upcoming dinner. She wanted to talk to him about starting with the plan now that they were by their own and hadn't to worry about anyone suspecting anything. She wasn't very sure about what should they do in the first place... she guessed that once it was started it would be easier to carry on, problem was how to start it without Yamcha noticing anything strange. 

Besides, she wanted to talk to Vegeta about the second step in her changing herself. She wanted Vegeta to train her. She new that he wouldn't be pleased with the idea, starting with the point that it would make him loose some more precious training hours, but she had spent two weeks preparing herself for this and had good arguments for anything he threw at her. The fact was that she had always been frustrated when she hadn't been able to make Yamcha, or any other of the Z-senshi for that matter, do anything he hadn't wanted. Don't misunderstand: she could talk Yamcha to do nearly everything she wanted him to do, but when talking about the little things such as making him leave her home, or letting her go when he had her in his arms... or whenever she was so mad she wanted to hurt him and hurled things at him or pounded his chest with her fists, it was very frustrating to see that knowing smile on his face as if she were some little girl throwing a fit who needed to vent up some anger and he let her 'cause she couldn't harm him in any way. It made her feel inferior to him, those times, and she didn't like feeling inferior to anyone about anything! Add to that the fact that she always had to be carried whenever the gang went to some place flying, and protected or left aside if trouble aroused. It pissed her to no end to know that she was given a special treatment, that she was more of a burden than anything else. 

Well, those were some of her arguments, the real motives, and she was sure he would understand them, but she had a list full of other ones ready to shot at the prince.

So, after putting the last peace of clothes in her wardrobe, she went downstairs and prepared a huge dinner. She wanted to start the night on his good side, at least. It wouldn't make her any good to do otherwise.

  
--------**--------

They'd been living together for nearly a month, now. That first dinner had gone incredibly smooth. She prepared one of his favorites dishes: red meat rather raw. She didn't know how he could eat that, sometimes it even bleed a little when he cut it!! But he liked it a lot and she wanted him in a good mood. 

He had seen directly through her plan and knew she was going to ask something of him, but hadn't complained, after all, it was to his advantage to keep his mouth shut. When at last she'd asked what she wanted in between mouth-fulls of ice-cream he'd been pleasantly surprised and had agreed without struggle.

She had been baffled! All her arguments and all the thought she'd put on this single discussion and he simply agreed? Of all the reactions and possible lines of thought she'd expected him to have, this wasn't one of them. She wanted to ask him why, why was he willing to loose some valuable training time on her, why did he agree to train her so easily, HER of all people, who didn't have any powers, who hadn't trained in all her life... but she wisely decided that she didn't want to push her luck anymore and so, she'd keep all her curiosity for a better time, if that ever came.

So, it had also been nearly a month since she started training with Vegeta.

He had turned out to be the best sensei she could have hoped to find. He was very strict, but was also aware of her limits and just pushed her till she reached them. He was very constant with her training and didn't let her fool him whenever she was in a lazy mood. He knew when to push, when to taunt, when and what buttons to pull to get her to give all she had but didn't let her go mad, she had to keep her concentration at every moment. 

But the most important: he knew perfectly well what he was doing; aside from martial arts, he had a deep knowledge of the human anatomy and the way the body reacts to every effort, knew how to take care of the body, he had made a rigid schedule for her that didn't limit only to their training together but to all her day so that she stretched, massaged and took her of her muscles and so that she ate properly according to the kind of training they where doing and what skills where they working on. He had even taken to account her job, varying her schedule depending if she was going to spend the day at her office doing paper work or if she was working in her lab. He had taken her training very seriously.

For that she was very grateful, for she knew that if she had gone to Goku or Yamcha or anyone of the others they would have gone soft on her, they would have pampered her and she wouldn't be progressing this fast. She was very proud of what she had accomplished so far. Even though she had just trained for a month, the results were clearly visible in her body and the way she carried herself. She had always been rather slim, but all her curves were soft, kind of childlike, now she was toned, all her muscles well defined, her curves more pronounced and hard under her silken skin. She carried herself proudly, straight, her head high, and walked as if she were floating - she had always marveled at his way of doing this, seeming to float around instead of walking, but know she knew that, aside from his natural grace and perfected agility and stealth, he seemed to float because he really _felt_ as if he didn't weight an ounce, and that was because of the GR. Even though she had just reached the 5G's and stayed there a little more than an hour and a half per day, walking around in normal gravity now seemed so easy, so free... -

He still hadn't taught her much about fighting, they had just trained her body and mind. That's one thing she already knew: how to meditate, but even that he had improved.

She didn't know why, but had been very surprised when she started to realize the depths of his knowledge on the subject. It had been foolish of her, she knew, for thinking back she should have seen that this was his job, he had spent all his life training, his body was both his means of living for it was his best weapon when it came to his job, and the reason he was still alive, it should have been only logical to think that he would know his job, the techniques and tools, as she knew hers. Somehow, however, she hadn't. Maybe she had underestimated both him and what he does. She probably thought that fighting was just knowing some techniques, training a lot just doing pushups and the likes, shadowboxing, sparring and a good deal of improvisation and foresight when it came to battles. 

She had been greatly surprised, and pleasantly too. She felt she couldn't be in better hands.

Anyway, after a month of living together they had decided that it was time to put their plan into action. All her doubts about how to begin had been cleared. Vegeta had asked her to find out a restaurant where he usually took her girlfriends and after a little subtle interrogation of some of the Z-senshi to know so, they had gone to have lunch or dinner there sometimes. He had explained that this way they would be known in the restaurant, seeming that they had been together for a while and that it was pure casuality that they met Yamcha there. More over, this way they would get to know each other's habits while eating which would make it all the more believable. She had a feeling that he had also wanted to see how we humans behave in this kind of situations so that he didn't make a fool of himself.

Now everything was ready and tomorrow would be the day.

-----------------------

Well, that's it for the third chapter. As I said this one is way longer. It probably isn't what you were expecting... maybe you'd have liked to see them on their first date, already. Well, I thought I needed to put all this before... for once I don't think anybody could go from being depressed over her ex and not being able to see him without breaking down to plotting something like this and acting as if nothing. AND I thought that they should have got to know each other a little before acting and it ocurred to me that training was a good way to do so... don't you think? 

On the other side I think that she needed to grow up a little. I mean, look at her on Namek! Sometimes she just got on my nerves with all her complaining like a spoiled little girl: they were nearly killed, on a planet that was about to explode and all she could think of was that they had left her alone and that she was bored?? 

Anyway, next chapter will be their first date! What's gonna happen? Will it turn out well? And what's this: Vegeta doesn't have anything to wear... do I see a trip to the mall? I still don't know how next chapter's gonna be that much, just have the general idea, so this one's gonna take some time to be finished... Till then, thank you a lot for all your reviews. See You!


	4. The First Date

Disclaimer: Don't own DBZ.

The first date

The next day was the day. Their first 'date'. The moment to put the plan into action. The determinant day in their success. If Yamcha bought it and everything went well, things could turn out as they wanted.

Bulma was a nervous wreck.

~ Damn! This is not healthy! You gotta calm down, girl. Everything's going to be perfect. You've planed this for a long time and have worked real hard; everything is under control: we know the place, we've been there several times and I know that Vegeta isn't going to make an scene, by now he knows everything about human customs and how to behave in a romantic date. We've got the best table, Yamcha will be there with some stupid bimbo and I'll be astounding in that Chinese dress I saw in the mall. 

But Yamcha can clean up real nice when he puts his mind into it, so Vegeta will have to wear... VEGETA! Shit!!!! I forgot all about him. What's he gonna wear? Maybe something of all the things mom and I bought him will do. He's never worn anything so I don't even know if they fit him. I guess I'll have to convince him to let me take a look at his wardrobe... oh, and they're gonna be human clothes, to make him put human clothes on will take a lot of convincing!

Damn! Why does everything have to be so complicated with him?! I need to prepare diner. Is there any ice-cream? Yeah, I think there are a couple of vanilla & cookies left from the last time... all I could savage from him. Why in hell did I introduce him to ice-cream?! He started with chocolate, but by now anything sweet and frozen is good to him.

Anyway girl, you're straying. Stay centered. I've got a huge meal to prepare. What time is it? 9 p.m.?? Fuck! It's late! How it's got so late? Doesn't matter. Knowing him, he's still got about two hours worth of training. Time enough for me.

Wait! I don't hear the GR!! Has he finished early? Don't think so. He must be in that damn room. Every time I think of it... I told him about the spare room at the beginning of his half of the corridor. He practically ignored me, I even thought he hadn't heard me, and a few days later he came to me telling me he wants the room sound-proof and with a good lock on it. And that's all! He hasn't asked for any kind of furniture, nor any kind of electric installation... and I've never even been allowed to get a little glimpse of it. But he spends whole days in there. What does he do the whole day there alone? In a bare, sound-proof, locked room??

(Imagine Bulma with a blank face, a lost look in her eyes and a lot of question tags popping all around her head.

Five minutes later she snaps out of it.)

Damn, I spaced out again! Too much on my mind. Now onto more pressing matters: prepare dinner for a Saiyan Prince and myself. ~

~*~

~2 hours... 2 hours!! HA! Naive girl. It's 1 in the fucking morning and Mr. Training hasn't appeared. What the hell is he doing?! Argh!!!

I made dinner. And waited. Laid the table. And waited some more. The meal got cold do I reheated it. And I'M STILL WAITING!!

There's a lot to do tomorrow, why does he stay in there till this late? He should... uh? Listen:

... thud, thud... flof... thud, thud, thud... click, shush, thud, thud, shush, plop...

Ah! That was his door, at last! ~

~*~

He had spent the whole afternoon in the meditation room to prepare psychologically for the following day. It was going to be straining, he needed all his control and the most calm and balanced mind he could obtain.

Besides, the following day he'd have to cut the training short so he tried to make up a little for it.

What would be his surprise when he got downstairs and found the woman there waiting for him.

"What do you want?" He wasn't in the mood for her, tonight, she better got to the point and left him to himself quickly.

"What do I want?! What the fuck were you doing there till now?" Wrong answer.

"None of your business. Now if you were here to bitch at me you can leave. I'll see you tomorrow." Any sign of a good mood was lost on Vegeta, he was now in a very foul mood.

"No, no, Vegeta. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have yelled at you. I made dinner. It's in the oven. Come and eat with me, I need to talk to you."

"Hn." That had appeased him somewhat, so he acceded and went with her. As told, dinner was in the oven which was way better than the cold leftovers he had had in mind when he came down. "So, what do you need to talk to me about?" Still, he wasn't in a good mood, he still wanted her out of here as soon as possible.

She was fairly surprised at the change of their routine: he would have usually waited till the ice-cream to say something, but she had already annoyed him once and wasn't going to push her luck. "We haven't talked about what you're going to wear."

"What's wrong with what I've worn every time we've gone there?" He was now fairly sure where this conversation would take them, and he didn't like it one bit.

"Oh, come on. Don't play the fool with me. You know that your spandex isn't appropriate for our 'romantic date' standards. You have studied enough couples the times we've been there to know so."

~ Hn, so what? ~ "Hai, I've seen your ningen standards, but you're dating an alien."

~ Oh... I hadn't thought so. It's an interesting idea, I'll have to work on it, but not this time. ~ His brief statement had left her with lots of new possibilities that she hadn't thought of. He was so alike that she nearly forgot that he was an alien.

"I'll take that on account, Vegeta. But you gotta remember you're an alien in a planet full of humans. There's just one of you and millions of us, you'll have to concede sometimes. Besides, I want to win Yamcha in his ground. It won't be that hard. Let me take a look at your wardrobe; some of all those clothes we bought you will do."

"I left them all at CC." He had said it very calmly, as if it were nothing. Bulma was speechless. One of the more important parts of a date was nearly ruined and he didn't care?! She wanted to say something, anything, and kept opening and closing her mouth, but nothing came out of it.

"Stop that. You seem a freaking fish out of water. I don't have those clothes. I'll wear some of mine. No big deal."

Finally she snapped out of it and all the mess in her head became a logical line of thought, structured into something understandable. She let everything go. "No big deal?! Oh, but it is, it's huge! Do you think that with all that bullshit you'll manage to go through it without human clothes? Think again. What you wear is very important and if you wanna make it the hard way, so be it: tomorrow we're going to the mall to buy you some decent clothes. And before you say anything, YES!, you're coming with me. This way you can choose whatever you like and won't annoy me anymore.

Tomorrow. You. Me. After training time. At the mall.

Have a good night."

And with that she left the room and an stunned, nearly gaping Saiyan Prince.

~*~

Next day's training session was hell for Bulma. Two hours, a bubble bath and a massage later she was still sore everywhere. She should have seen it coming.

However, she wasn't angry. It was his way of making her pay for what he was going to suffer, which meant he was going to go through it. And that was what she'd wanted, wasn't it?

As predicted, 5 minutes later he was at the parking lot of the mall wit her. It was obvious that he wasn't in a good mood, the day could turn out interesting.

She was giving him an idea of what to expect from the mall, what could he find in it and how to get it. With that she gave him a quick tour through all the stores she deemed appropriate. She would have preferred to go herself and choose his clothes but he had been inflexible on that: his opinion about her taste for clothes, at least for him, was very poor at best and he wasn't going to let her interfere. That had meant having to explain him the basics of any occidental economy and to show him how to use her credit card. He had no restrictions about how much he spent, he could buy anything he liked and the more the better 'cause if the occasion aroused of a date for which he didn't have clothes he'd have to come back.

Finally she took him to a particular store and showed him the dress she was gonna wear that night. With that and some final directions for him they parted ways.

~*~

Finally she had let him go! She had forbidden him everything:

NO using his ki in any form (he had taught her how to feel it so she would know).

NO using his super-strength or other powers.

NO hurting people (neither physically nor psychologically).

NO destroying anything.

NO threatening, intimidating or using any kind of extortion.

NO making an scene.

NO talking about sayians.

NO saying he was a prince.

NO belittleling the human race and/or its ways.

NO...

The list of 'no's' never ended . What the hell was he allowed to do?! Buy, of course. The damn woman was obsessed with that. It was clear to him that she was elated to come to this place and spend the whole day, if possible, in here. To prove that she had a wardrobe the size of a room and she could walk in there.

To him, this place looked... dangerous. Right now was quite early in the morning, a little more than 9 a.m., and he could guess that they had arrived at the time the place opened its doors, but there was quite a lot of ningens, already. He didn't even want to imagine how this would be at midday. With this in mind, and knowing he wouldn't be able to do practically anything against them, he sped across the mall in the direction of the stores she had showed him.

It took him nearly fifteen minutes to get to the zone he wanted to go, and he was grateful for being so observant, since he was sure he would already be lost in the halls, corridors, stairs... the place was a fucking maze! And the woman navigated through this as if she were at home!!! That made nothing but confirm his opinion that she was obsessed with the so called mall.

Anyway, he was finally there. There were about half a dozen of stores from which he could choose his new wardrobe, varying in styles and prices. Since he didn't know single shit about ningen styles and the price was not a problem he entered a seldom one and looked around for a while. He had been in there no more than a minute when a blonde with a high-pitched voice attached herself to his arm and asked him just what she could do to _help_ him. He may not have been very used to the ningen ways, but he wasn't a fool and it didn't escape him the double meaning those words were intended to have. An image of the blue haired woman's mother (this girl reminded him of her) making a pass on him entered his mind and he couldn't help but shudder. Big mistake. She took it as a good sign and put her finger on his chest and started rubbing all the while looking at him with what he guessed was intended to be a sexy look. He had to consciously restrain himself from throwing her across the store, and instead disentangled her from his arm and made a haste escape for the door. Once out he sighed with relief. These freaking ningens were fucking nuts!! What the hell did that woman think she was doing?! Didn't she have any self control? Any dignity?

~ Ok, so not any store will do. I have to be more careful when choosing. First: no young women there to 'help' me. I guess that some of these stores will have male attendants. Argh! Some day this is going to be! ~

So he took a look at the next store, pleased when he spotted the young man rearranging some of the misplaced shirts on a shelf. As he entered the store the other man looked up from the shirts and said that he could look around at anything he wanted, to call for him if he had any problem. That was much better. He started looking around and found himself in front of a table full of brightly colored shirts and T-shirts. Hideous. He went to the next table and found it full of pant as brightly colored as the shirts had been. And then some flowery shirts. And flowery pants, too. And a full stack of shirts with messages about love and peace... He fled from the store!

~ Gah! What the hell was that?? Not only ningens don't have any dignity, but any good taste, either! What was that? A store for sissy boys, or what?! Ok! Calm down, there must be some kind of store without clingy females or THAT kind of clothes. This time just look really carefully before you enter. ~ So he approached the next store and looked inside. ~ GODS! This one has both of them!!! Overly bright clothes and overly cheerful girls all around the place. Creepy! Next one. ~

Luckily, the next store didn't have either of them. What's more: it was empty save from the old man typing away at a computer of sorts near the entrance. He entered the room and the man welcomed him to the shop. He gave a curt nod and went to look for something wearable. This proved to be a somehow good store to buy at. All the clothes were kind of formal, but he needed a little bit of everything so he went about everything there was and picked up several pieces. However, once he had them all he realized that not everything was the same size. Then he remembered the woman telling him about the system used in the mall to classify clothes depending on the size, and that he should look at the price tag to see that everything was the right size in order for the clothes to fit him. When he had everything he had to go to some kind of cubicles and try them on to make sure they fitted.

It took him some time, but finally he spotted this tag thing attached to each piece of cloth where there was which size it was and he finally had all the clothes in the size he needed. Now he had to try them on. ~ Cubicles, look for some kind of cubicles, the woman said there would probably be many doors lined up together at the end of the store... SHIT! Why can't they make anything simple in this fucking planet?! Where the hell are these cubicles?! Fucking old hag typing away on that contraption and there are no cubicles anywhere in the freaking place!! Huh? Why are the shelves trembling? FUCK! That's my ki! Vegeta, you gotta get a grip on yourself! Now, how did the woman call them? Something rooms I think... gah! Doesn't matter! Old hag back there is supposed to be here to help you, right? Well, he better do his job properly. ~

With that he took a couple of deep breathes, lowered his ki back to normal and went to man at the entrance. "Where are the cubicles?" Said man looked bewildered at the question. "Excuse me, sir?" Vegeta was loosing grip on his barely controlled temper, but he managed a clipped "Where. Are. The. Cubicles." Poor clerk still didn't get was this strange man was asking, but he was sensing rather clearly the anger that emanated from him in thick waves and something told him that it was not safe to be on his bad side. Suddenly his eyes fell in the stack of clothes the man had tucked under on of his arms and a light popped in his head. "Oh, you want to try those on?" Upon seeing the glare that the saiyan send his way the man took that as an 'obviously' and lead him to the back of the store where a huge door was partially hidden. "Here, you can change in there. There's a mirror inside. Do you think you'll need anything else? I can stay and help you out with your clothes or –" "Leave." With that the man scurried back to the front leaving Vegeta blissfully alone. 

More calm now that everything seemed to be in place again, he did as told an entered the door to see a little room with a couple of hangers, a stool and a mirror in front of it. He hung everything that he had picked up, changed into the first outfit and checked it out in front of the mirror. He did so with everything he had brought with him to the changing room and about twenty minutes later he went to the front of the store, again, to the man still typing. Said man, now very wary of this strange customer, stopped whatever he was doing and gave him his full attention. "Is there anything else I can do for you, sir?"

"I want these ones," he said piling a lot of clothes in front of said man. But he still had some tucked in the other arm, the ones that he didn't like, and he actually didn't know what to do with them so he just pushed them to the other man's arms "but all of this you can keep. Here." Vegeta finally gave him the credit card that Bulma had given him. She had explained a litlle about the economy of the country and how it worked and he knew that he was supposed to use the little piece of plastic to pay for what he purchased, so he just gave it to the man, picked up his clothes and started to leave.

"Sir, wait! Where are you going?!" 

"To find the woman, I need another one of those cards."

The poor man was flabbergasted! This customer was getting weirder by the minute. He had given him his credit card, LITERALLY given him!!! "But sir!!! I haven't checked out your clothes, and you're forgetting your credit card!" The Saiyan gave him a questioning impatient look and the man explicated some more not wanting to upset him. "I'll just add up everything and see how much it'll all cost and charge you that. Then you can take your credit card and go to the rest of the stores. I'm sure you have no need for another credit card, sir."

"Hn" was all the Saiyan said. He was humiliated by the fact that he had had to have it explained how to pay for his purchase. Damn ningens and they tendency to complicate everything! ~ Why is it that they are so strange! The whole fucking universe has an inter-galactic economy that allows you to buy everywhere and everybody knows how to do it. There's no need for these credit cards or they stupid green papers! But these weaklings... fuck! They didn't even know there was a whole society out there... they think they're the fucking navel of the universe! Stupid creatures! ~ Just then he was interrupted as his credit card and a bag full of his clothes was given to him. He nodded curtly and left the store as quickly as possible.

Well, that last store hadn't gone all that bad. Sure, he was never going to go back there after making himself look like a fool in front of the old clerk, but aside from that he had some clothes and had learnt how to pay with the fucking card. However, this place was getting on his nerves, he didn't like it in the least and didn't understand how the woman could come here by her on will so often. He'd been here a little more than an hour and he wanted to leave already. He still had to buy some casual clothing, though. So, wanting to finish as quickly as possible with this twisted torture he entered a store that seemed appropriate. It was a store for young people, with tight T-shirts, fashionable shirts (not that Vegeta knew that they were fashionable 'cause he didn't know anything about human fashion, but still ^^), tight jeans, leather pants... there were some things in bright colors, but there were a lot in dark ones, too, so it was safe to enter. Beside, the store was nearly empty, and while there was a female attendant, there was also a male one, so he dared go in there.

It turned out a pretty good store, and he got an armful of clothes pretty quickly. He fortunately spotted the changing rooms at the other side of the store, so he went to there and entered a random one. These cubicles weren't even half as big as the one in the other shop. There was barely space enough for him to change into his clothes. Upon doing so, though, he realized that there wasn't any mirror in there. He could feel that the clothes fitted but he wanted to know if he looked good in them. He needed a mirror, so he went out the changing room and looked for one of the attendants. The female one was a few shelves away from his stall. "Girl! There is no mirror in here."

Said girl was too busy drooling all over him to reply to his demand. Truth be told, she had tried to be as close as possible to the door he had entered not wanting to miss on the views that hot and dark man was going to provide, of that she was damn sure. And she hadn't been wrong, of course. Here he was: in the first outfit he had tried that fit him to every curve and every muscle... that guy was a gym freak, she was sure, but fuck it if every hour he had spent in there hadn't been worth it. Finally her brain caught up with what he'd said "Oh! That's right. The mirror is just there, behind you. There is no mirror in any of those doors, you have to come out here to see how it fits." And she had never been so grateful for that in all the time she had been working here, she thought to herself.

On his part, he wasn't too thrilled about that, but he had no other choice, so he went to the mirror and took a look at himself. Not bad. And went inside again to change into something else. 

After three or four outfits he noticed that the store was rather more crowded, and to his annoyance, nearly everyone in there was a female. At first he shrugged it as another strange custom of these weird ningens to have their females to buy for their males, but after a while it started nagging him. It seemed that all the women were positioned quite near the changing rooms where he currently was, and every time he went out to the mirror he could feel all those eyes roaming his body shamelessly. And what was worse: every time he went to the mirror there seemed to be more women in the store. He sped up what he was doing. He needed to try all this on since he didn't want to have to come back any time soon, but he also NEEDED to leave this place as soon as possible. He had realized that all the women where here for the show HE was presenting, and not being able to blast all of them into oblivion as his instincts were screaming at him to do, the next best thing was to flee from the place. 

He nearly shrieked when, while looking himself in the mirror in his last outfit, a hand sneaked out and squeezed his behind. He turned around and found himself looking to a lot of seemingly busy women looking through piles of clothes. But he couldn't dwell too much on it as another pair of hands ghosted by his skin: one in his biceps and the other one in his behind, again. This time his instincts took control over his body and he literally flew to hide in his cubicle. 

When he was safely there he changed back to his own clothes and popped his head out the door. All the women where still there waiting for him to go out again. Not in this life! he thought. "You!," he pointed to the female attendant that was just in front of his door "take all these clothes and my credit card: I'll take them all, and they better be ready when I get there or there'll be hell to pay!!!" the girl winked at him and told him something along the lines of "whatever you want, sexy" and left to do as told. He was ready to explode right then and there. He went back into the cubicle and tried to clam himself somewhat. Not an easy task with a bunch of crazy women out there waiting for him, so when he thought he'd be able to get pass them without destroying anything he used his inhuman speed to get to the front, took his clothes that were already in bags and the credit card the clerk was giving him along with a piece of paper on top with a phone number and a wink and fled. He knew that the woman had said that no using his saiyan abilities, but this was an out of control situation, the woman better understand it. With her in mind he tracked her ki blindly trying to put as much space between him and that damn store as possible without loosing himself in the maze that was this fucking mall. 

So in a less than a minute he was in the other end of the mall. He entered a saloon without really noticing and finally stood in front of the woman. "Ghaaaaah!!!" There, in front of him, was a monster with a muddy face and the hair made of some kind of metal. Add this to his already unsettled mind and it's no wonder that he'd cry out like that.

Upon hearing the scream Bulma opened her eyes and burst out laughing at the image Vegeta presented. "Calm down, Vegeta, it's me. This is just a cleansing mask." She saw his eyes fly to her hair and explained that, too "and that in my hair is necessary to die my hair". 

He looked skeptically at her. It seemed her, alright: it was her voice and her ki he was feeling coming from her... "I hate this place!" he mumbled under his breath, and louder he said "Ok, Onna. I've got all the clothes you wanted, I'm leaving this freaking place. I'll be in the GR if you need me. I'll be ready by 7 p.m. to leave." With that he left as fast as he could, her laughter trailing behind him.

--------**--------

"Damn it, Onna! We should be eating by the time he gets there! What the fuck are you doing up there?! You've been in there for the whole fucking afternoon!"

He was seething. Sure, this plan had nothing to do with him, but he had kind of accepted this mission, it was on his mind to torture the weakling somewhat and he couldn't do it alone, he needed her to do so, so why in hell was she still in her room?? She had had her hair and nails done when she had arrived from the mall and her skin was 'like that of a baby's bottom' as she'd said – whatever that meant – thanks to that strange mask she'd been wearing when he'd found her in the mall, so as far as he understood she just had to put on her dress and shoes and she was ready to leave. Why was it taking her more than four hours to do so?!

"That's it Onna, I'm coming up there and you're going to leave however you are!" With that he stormed upstairs and threw her door open. She was in front of her body length mirror wearing the dress she'd shown him that morning, though it was way more beautiful on her, not that he was gonna say it to her, but there's no point in trying to lie to himself or to deny the truth. It was a sleeveless Chinese dress that reached her feet. It was a light royal blue color, bordered in silver and with a silver dragon that twisted around her body, starting above her chest, going past her shoulder, curving slightly through her back and coming to the front again, as if caressing her hip, to finally go back to end with a long tail at the end of the dress. With that she had a pair of high-heeled sandals with two straps that criss-crossed up to her ankle. Her hair was simply put in two little buns, with some strands framing her face. She had put nearly no make up; just some gloss on her lips and a little bit of eye shadow.

"You look ready to me, Onna. We're leaving."

~*~

She had spent the afternoon meditating a little bit, as much to relax and calm herself as to make sure that everything was in order. Then she'd taken a long relaxing bath and finally she had dressed up. That was about forty-five minutes ago. Since then she'd been over her make up several times, had checked her hair for loose strands, had tried nearly all her jewelry on – to end up wearing none – and was still pacing her room, stopping every now and then to look herself in the mirror.

She had also been fairly worried about Vegeta's choice of clothes, so it came as a great and pleasant surprise when he came to her room and she could finally see what he'd bought. To say the truth, she was speechless.

He was wearing a skin-tight, black tank top, sleeveless and with a slightly long neck. A pair of black slacks with a black belt and some black boots. Finally he has put on black, leather gloves with the fingers cut off. It was a very simple outfit, but it suited him and his personality and he looked rather hot in it. The top showed off his broad back and his muscled arms, but as he wasn't bulky it didn't make him look like a bully. In fact, it could nearly be one of his training tank tops if it weren't for the long neck which made it all seem more... elegant?... sophisticated?... whatever! You get the idea, right? The slacks, for their part, showed his slender waist and were low enough so that depending how he moved you could catch a glimpse of his abs under the tank top. But aside from that, even though they let you know he had no skinny legs, the slacks didn't show them since they were slightly baggy.

Only problem she could see was that he was _all_ in black, rather depressing even if it... Wait, maybe... YES! As he turned a little she caught a glimpse of white and it turned out he wasn't ALL in black as there was a white dragon sewed to one of his back pockets drawing all the attention to his tight ass... and what an ass, might I say. So much for her worrying about him cleaning up nicely. When Yamcha did, he was handsome, very much so in fact, but Vegeta... Gods! He was hot! Handsome falled miserably short when it came to the Saiyan Prince. He made Yamcha look rather... tame. This was even better than whatever she could have imagined.

"You look ready to me, Onna. We're leaving."

That snapped her out of her musings as she saw him coming to her with every intention of making her go, by force if needed be. She wasn't ready, though.

"Wait, wait! I'm not sure. Today must be perfect. I gotta knock him off his feet, I've gotta be more breathtaking than whatever bimbo he is with now, but I don't wanna look like a slut... What do you think, will this be good enough?" she asked while twirling around so that he could take everything in.

"Onna, the weakling will be drooling all over you – not that _that_ is very difficult to manage, he'd find attractive a chimpanzee in a skirt, but that's not the point. And as for the girl... you'll have to see her before you can say anything. You look fine and there's nothing you can do about it anymore. It's time."

~ I guess he's right. I've done all I can. It's time to play. ~ "Ok, Vegeta, let's go."

~*~

Half an hour later they were at their usual table in the restaurant and were already eating. The table was at the far end of the restaurant, in a corner, very reserved. Vegeta had his back to the rest of the tables and was partially hidden by a big plant behind him. Bulma, on the other hand, was facing the restaurant and could easily be seen from any of the other tables. They had carefully chosen that table the first time they had come, and that along with the way they were seated was all part of their plan.

They had been rather quiet, both busy with their own thoughts, but some conversation had aroused, mostly on her part since she couldn't keep quiet for long. She was too nervous. However, they hadn't talked any since their food had been served, when suddenly Vegeta looked at her.

"They're here."

That's all he said, but it was enough. Her head shot up and she looked wildly from the door to the rest of the restaurant searching for the familiar figure of her ex.

"Onna! Calm down, stay collected and don't panic! Be sensible. Don't make a fool out of the both of us. Search for him through his ki. Concentrate."

She realized how fool she'd been. Had Yamcha caught her he'd known right away that something was up. She breathed deeply several times and tried to 'feel' him. It was still rather difficult for her, but she finally spotted him outside the restaurant, maybe at the corner, no more than fifty meters away from them.

"They're out."

"Hai. Now calm yourself and smile. We've gone through this several times, you know what to do."

Right, she knew what to do. Very easy for him to do so, it wasn't his future that was at stake, but she had to manage. She had to smile and talk softly to him. It didn't really matter what she said as long as she said something and she had to keep a calm and happy face the whole time, no matter what. They had to seem a happy couple.

She kept tracking his ki 'till he was at the door. She then put a happy face and centered her attention on Vegeta. In order for everything to go as planned it had to be Yamcha the one to spot them and not the other way around, so as much as she wanted to look at him and whoever was with him, she had to quench her curiosity and avoid looking at them until they were seated and it was safer to do so.

If Yamcha had looked at them right then he would have seen a seemingly happy Bulma seated in one of the best restaurants in the city chatting animatedly with the person in front of her. However, had he come any closer, he would have realized that the words that were uttered didn't match the picture at all; they were hurried and nervous and there was slight panic in them despite the happy face. As it was, though, Yamcha didn't look in their direction. He simply flirted shamelessly with his date while they were led to their table.

When Bulma was sure that they were seated she risked a quick glance  in their direction: they were seated in the middle of the restaurant and facing to either side of Bulma so that both could see her if they wanted, but she wasn't in either line of vision directly. Yamcha had put on that yellow suit of his. Perfect: Bulma didn't like that thing in the least and that would make things easier. Now his date... 

Bulma paled.

"Vegeta! She doesn't look a blonde in the least! What I'm going to do?!" she was in a state of pure panic , now. She had counted on Yamcha to pick some stupid girl with big tits, but this girl didn't look the part. Sure, she had a great body, but she wore a sleeveless, skin-tight top with long neck and baggy pants. Her short hair went in all directions and she had on even less make up than Bulma. The outfit wasn't very formal, but it was appropriate for a place like this, and it screamed 'personality!'.

Vegeta, on the other hand, was quite confused. "So, she's a brunette? What does that matter, Onna? The color of her hair doesn't matter now!" ~ She's gone crazy! ~

That shut her up. She stopped panicking and looked at him. After a few moments like that she burst out laughing. The fucking woman not only had gone nuts but she had a death wish laughing at him like that. When the glare she was receiving from her partner got to a murderous level she tried to stop herself, it would do no good to have Vegeta try to kill her on their first date. Finally when she was calm enough to speak:

"Sorry Vegeta, I shouldn't have laughed like that, it's only natural that you wouldn't know what I was talking about. When you call a woman a 'blonde'..." With that, a much more relaxed Bulma began to explain him about blonde jokes and they engaged in a trivial conversation about fashion and the such – just to have Vegeta reinforce his opinion that ningens are a strange AND useless race -.

~*~

Yamcha was amazed with this new woman he was dating. He had already gone out with her more than half a dozen times and he wasn't bore with her, yet. When he'd been dating Bulma, all the other women he'd fucked had been just that: a good fuck.. He'd attributed that to the fact that he was already dating someone else, but ever since they had broken up he had found out that if he tried to date any of those women, after 2 or 3 times he got bored of their senseless babbling and just dumped them.

In the end he went to Krillin for advice and the ex-monk told him to stop dating stupid bimbos and try with a real woman, an intelligent one. At first he'd been offended that his friend thought so poorly of his dates, but ended up admitting that he usually picked the stupid and easy ones with the killer bodies in the smallest dresses.

That's how he'd ended with Sam, the woman seated in front of him right now. She was gorgeous, no doubt about that, and even though she didn't dress like all his other dates it still was very hot. The most important, however, was that she could keep up a conversation  about all and everything he could come up with. She was intelligent – he thought that she had told him something about having gone to college – and had an interesting sense of humor.

The waiter had just brought them the dessert's menu when she came back from the bathroom.

"You won't ever guess who I saw at the bathroom!" She said very excited.

"Who?" It had to be someone really important to make her act like this.

"Bulma Briefs! Can you believe it? She's one of the best scientists in the world and together with her father they're something else. I'd love to..."

Yamcha wasn't sure how to react to that. He hadn't expected this. They hadn't met since their break up aside from brief meetings at some social events and a couple of parties at Master Roshy's, and even though he had been the one to ask to remain as friends, he still wasn't all that comfortable with her.

"Bulma is here?" he mumbled to himself, but Sam had heard it.

"Bulma? You know her?"

"Uh... yes, we're friends."

"Really?! Wow, Yamcha, you gotta introduce us, please? Most of what I learned at the university was developed by either her or her father and I admire her a lot, she's a celebrity."

"You mean you like to mess with chips and circuits and computers, too? I thought you had studied something else."

He seemed a little upset about it, she realized. "Is there a problem with that? I would have thought that if you're friends with Bulma Briefs you'd already be used to all of that."

"Oh, no! No, there's no problem, you just caught me off guard, I wasn't expecting it." ~ Yeah, right Yamcha. Who are you kidding? Fortunately Sam and I don't know each other that much so it'll be a while till she starts telling me about her day and whatever project she's in from which I won't be able to understand a single word. No need to tell her so, though. Better change the subject. ~ "Anyway, I don't know how I could introduce you. I mean it's not as if I could go over there and sit down at her table or something. Speaking of which, do you know where she is seated?"

"She's right there, at the end of the restaurant, do you see her? I guess you're right, we shouldn't interrupt her in the middle of her date. She's probably chosen a table so secluded for a reason. But maybe if we stay till after they finish you could call her over on their way to the exit... they could sit with us to have a coffee or something, what do you think?"

Yamcha had stopped listening as soon as his eyes fell on her. The few times he'd seen Bulma during these last months she'd seemed depressed, her face was paler, she had dark circles under her eyes... and somehow it made him feel good to know that it was caused by their break up, by him, in a way, since she still was kind of pining after him. Today, however, she looked splendid, radiant, as beautiful as ever and she seemed to be having a great time. It made him angry that she... could be happy? It was confusing. He hadn't been phased by their break up in the least, why should the fact that she went out to have dinner with some friend eat at him like that? That's when something else from what Sam had said registered in his mind. "Date? You think she's here on a date? Hahahaha! Don't be silly! She's here with one of her friends, they've probably taken her out a little."

"'Taken her out'? Why should they have to take her out? And why are you so sure she's not on a date?"

"Because she broke up with her boyfriend a little over half a year ago... they'd been together for ten years and she took it really bad."

"Yamcha... more than half a year is time enough to get over anybody, I think. Besides, you should be happy that she goes on with her life. I really think that she dating the guy, I don't really see him, but I'm sure it's a he, and as far as I could see they're holding hands. She seems very comfortable with him, look at her, talking and laughing without a care in the world, they probably have known each other for a while, you're not like that with someone you don't know... you and I aren't still like that, Yamcha."

~ They're holding hands?? They have known each other for quite a while?? The slut!!! What did she do? Pick up another guy as soon as I let her free? She should still be all over me, or at least trying to get me back, no going out with another guy!!! ~ (AN: if that's not an ego I don't know what would be!! Has anybody realized I'm not that fond of him? The jerk! ¬¬) "He's probably one of those lab rats that she works with for them to be able to talk that much. Either that or he's bored out of his mind, because she can babble about her job for hours. Poor Bulma was very depressed after the break up... maybe she was so desperate she picked up the first guy that came to her door. It's really a pity... he probably isn't half the man her ex was, just physically he is very, very good looking, plus he has a great sense of humor, is very charming and caring and a wonderful guy and boyfriend in general... but I guess that as you said I should be happy that she goes on with her life."

The way Yamcha was talking was a little strange, but she passed it off as some kind of male sympathy or something like that since he seemed to be close friends with her ex. "It must have been hard on her to loose such a man. Anyway, what do you say about my idea? Will you call her over when they leave? Pleaseeee." She put on her best puppy dog eyes.

She was too cute to resist. "Okay, I'll call them over. After all it's been a while since I last talked to her and I'm curious about her date, I'd like to know him."

~*~

"Okay, Onna, spit it out! Something's been in your mind since you came back from the bathroom and you've been in your little world ever since. I know I'm probably not the best of companies and I can assure you that I can think of a better one for me, too, but this is what there is and you should remember that I'm here doing YOU a favor so the least you could do is to try and NOT ignore me!" 

Vegeta was not happy. In the least. He'd been in the company of some subdeveloped species that had shown more respect than what she was showing. He was about to tell her so when she started apologizing and talking like crazy. ~ What the hell does she think she's doing? Does she want to give us away? Damn ningens, they're good for nothing! ~

"Shut up" He said it so calmly that it got him the response he wanted and she shut up immediately. Good. "Look, I haven't understood a thing of what you've said but that's not important. The thing is that you seem set on making this plan fail: you've forgotten all we talked about, you're too unbalanced, you're not concentrated."

She looked down at this, like a child that's just been reprimanded by their parents. "Sorry, Vegeta."

"Grrr! Damn ningens... stupid emotions... make you weak... not able to keep her concentration for a couple hours... too unstable..." He kept on mumbling like that for a while, thinking how to use this for their advantage and not against them. Meanwhile Bulma looked at him without really knowing what to do, just feeling foolish for her outburst but not being able to control herself. Finally he seemed to make a decision.

"Ok, Onna, come here." She stood up and took his extended hand which led her to his chair. He separated himself a little from the table and the hand tugged her towards him. She blushed to the root. "Wha--- Vegeta, what are you doing?"

"Onna, come on, sit here.", he said matter-of-fact while patting his knees, all the while tugging on her hand. "Come on! Straddle me."

By now she was sure she was the closest imitation to a tomato that could exist. "What?! But Vegeta!"

Finally tired of this Vegeta put both his hands at her waist and lifted her effortlessly till she was sitting on his knees, one of her legs at either side of him. "there. It wasn't that hard now, was it? Why do you have to argue everything I say?! Once in a while you could try and just do what I want!"

She was pretty sure she'd never been this embarrassed in all her life. "Vegeta! This is a restaurant! A public place! People is not supposed to sit like this in a restaurant like this. And besides, why have you made me sit like this in the first place?!"

This had lasted way too long, already. They had to go on with the plan before the weakling left. "Don't rich people get to be eccentric in this planet?" After receiving a hesitant nod he went on. "then there's no problem in you sitting here, you're rich. As for the why... Onna you're way out of control, I can't have you looking like that for all the restaurant to see. My seat is the only one that's hidden. As for the position, I thought that if someone were to see us they better get the desired impression. Now, calmly, tell me again what's the problem."

~ Man, this guy's amazing. He really thinks about everything and has everything under control. I couldn't have chosen a better partner for this plan. ~ Half reassured by these thoughts she took a deep breath and explained. "Well... you see... when I went to the bathroom she was there, the woman that's with Yamcha, I mean. She's really pretty. Anyway, I think she recognized me or something because when I came back they started discussing something and looking this way a lot. But in the end they quieted and they haven't done anything. I think that they saw me and I think that she could see us holding hands, so she probably told him since they were talking about us for so long. However, Yamcha didn't seem surprised or annoyed or jealous or anything. They've probably decided to let us be and that's why they didn't come to say anything.

They haven't looked this way since then. Not once. What if he doesn't care any more? What if it's too late? What will I do if he really doesn't react to all this charade? I'll end up an old, moody lady with the house full of cats! And that's a lot of cats considering the size of my house. Oh Vegeta, I don't think this is gonna work!!" With that she threw herself on him, arms around his neck and head on his shoulder. Ok, probably not the wisest thing to do considering we're talking about Vegeta, here, but she was REALLY unstable.

He drew her closer to himself instinctively, to hide her from view. As much as he wanted to slap some sense into her, this wasn't the time and the least they needed was for Yamcha to see her breakdown. So, with his hands near her bottom from where he had put them to push her to him and her wrapped around him, he let her calm down a little. ~ Shit! She's too insecure. I'll have to make her practice more meditation and show her how to control better her feelings, save the for later or use them in the right direction. We can't pull something like this, waiting for her to calm down, every time something doesn't go as planned! ~

Meanwhile Bulma started to clam down and became aware of the position they were in. She blushed again. She seemed to be doing that a lot, lately. She became acutely aware of strong arms surrounding her, of the hard, warm body pressed against hers... in this position everything seemed able. ~ He's so clam, and so confident, almost makes me forget all my doubts and fears. This feels nice. ~ When she was finally ready, she stood up to look at him, still sitting on his lap.

"More calm? Good. Let's see. First thing , Onna: if you saw all that why the hell didn't you tell me?! You were supposed to let me in on everything that happened since I've got my back to them, remember? If you keep panicking and forgetting the plan every time something happens this isn't going to work, you know that? They've seen us and they hadn't come? Ok, we'll just have to put more bait to this... maybe what we've used was not strong enough... in a way we were still testing. So what do you say? Do we step everything up a notch? Holding hands and the sweet stuff is not enough to get his attention so we'll try with some groping, kissing, teasing... you know what I mean, right? You gotta understand I've never been in a relationship before-"

At this her jaw hit the floor. "You mean you're a virgin?!"

"Don't be stupid, Onna. I'm obviously not a virgin, by far. I said I hadn't been in a relationship not that I haven't enjoyed sex as often as I've been able. That's were I was going. I know about the seduction, the teasing, the mind games... you know, all that stuff that's supposed to get you a bed partner when correctly used and to which you have to revert when there's not an appropriate harem to suit your needs..." he ended growling that, his eyes taking in a far away look as he remembered the many times he had had to 'seduce' his partners like a commoner. He should have been over all that, it should have been the other way around: people trying to get his attention and his favors. Returning to the here and now "Anyway, Onna, I think that suits way more than any mushy shit you might have had in mind for me and it will be more convincing, too. Doesn't have to mean that we're in this just for the sex, ok? We're not trying to get him to think that this is lust, it wouldn't work, then."

She was once again blushing. She was starting to get a little irritated with all the blushing, but she couldn't help it. She hadn't expected to get this far in their relationship so soon and wasn't prepared. But she guessed that he was right. It was good worth a try and he seemed to know what he was doing so... "Fine Vegeta, we'll do it as you say. Just a couple of things: first you don't get too nasty, I don't like rude comments or vulgar stares and Yamcha knows it. Secondly you should know that while you might be experienced in the area I'm not, so you're taking the led, now. You do and I'll try to keep up as much as I can, but don't expect me to start anything by myslef, at least for now."

"That won't be a problem, specially if you grow used to it for future dates we could use it for our advantage. One last thing: when they finally spot us and call us over you gotta act surprised, tell me to go to them, I'll frown or something (gotta keep in character) and you have to 'convince' me. It'll be the only time you'll have to start anything, but it's not much... you can come closer to me, put a hand on my chest suggestively, a sexy look in your face and lean on me as if to whisper something, ok? Any question?"

"Nop, I'm ready."

"Ok, then, let's go."

She was still wondering if she'd be ready for this and if this was such a good idea after all when he proceeded to haul her in his arms as she was and stand up. He then promptly set her on the floor to the right and looked at her. She was now in open view once again while he was still hidden and they were both looking to each other. Vegeta seemed to be searching for something and when he was satisfied he put both hands on her hips and pulled her to him while he moved himself to her at the same time. They met at the mouth at middle step and both his hands went to her bottom. She was shocked at the sudden movement, but recovered quickly. Her hands were now deep in that black mane of his and her eyes had gone from wide at first to closed as the kiss evolved and he gently licked her lip asking for permission that was quickly granted. His tongue entered her mouth and explored it thoroughly, not leaving a single inch. After a  while he moved one of the hands from her ass, up her back and to her neck where he played a little with a few strands of hair and then gently grabbed her neck forcing it to side a little for a better access while he bent forward somewhat to deepen the kiss. Bulma didn't know what to think. In fact all that passed her mind was 'That's one hell of a kiss!'. Her mind was a little foggy and she had practically forgotten where they were till a cry rang out loud and clear through the restaurant:

"VEGETA?!!!!!"

~*~

By the end of the dinner Yamcha was set on meeting his ex-girlfriend's date. He wasn't sure what his motives where nor was he sure what feelings this sudden discovery inspired in him, but he didn't want to, or dare, question himself too much.

He panicked slightly when he looked over to her table and found it empty but was quickly reassured by Sam that they were still there.  The relief was short lived, though, when she explained further and told him that, from what little she could see, she thought Bulma was sitting on her date's lap, hidden from everyone's view by that plant.

"What do you mean she's seated on his lap? Bulma is not the kind of person that goes sitting on men's lap in the best restaurant of the city! What is she thinking?! Why don't they screw each other silly while they are at it?!" He was full of conflicting emotions: shock and awed at seeing this part of her that he hadn't known about, jealous that she didn't show him in a ten year relationship but would show this man after a few months, enraged that she would act this slut-like and careless in a well known and public place and turned on by it at the same time...

If Sam thought his a strange reaction in front of everything that was happening, she didn't comment on it and kept her gaze locked on the other table trying to get a glimpse of the mysterious man. After a while of looking at Bulma's knee (that's pretty much all she could see from her seat), there was movement and she could see Bulma being hauled up seemingly with no effort and set on her feet at the side of the table, the side of the table that Sam could see. After that the man stood up, too and now that she could have a good look at him she found herself practically drooling. No doubt Bulma would throw her modesty to the wind and let herself by seated on his lap in a fine restaurant like this, hell! Sam herself would have thrown herself at the man had she had the opportunity to go out with him. "Gods, Yamcha! Her ex may have been a great guy and a wonderful boyfriend and all, but I doubt he was as hot as this guy!!! I've never seen anything hotter on two legs!"

"SAMMM!!! What the hell are you saying?! You're my girlfriend, remember?"

"I know, but I haven't become blind all of a sudden, you know? Hey, I'm not saying you're not handsome, 'cause you're very handsome and have a great body and all, don't get me wrong, but this guy's something else!" She was in her little world and hadn't looked at Yamcha once in all this time, her gaze locked on the wet dream at the other end of the restaurant.

Yamcha was stunned. His eyes had bugged so much they had practically come out of their sockets at Sam's words. How could it be?! Even his own girlfriend was ogling over Bulma's date?! He couldn't be that good looking, could him? Not better than himself, Sam must be not seeing him well... right? Suddenly Sam's next words cut through his thoughts again. "Oh, man! That's some kiss his giving her!" she practically groaned the words. That's when Yamcha looked over their table himself, just in time to see whoever was with Bulma lean over her to deepen the kiss and, for the first time, he caught a glimpse of Bulma's date. He practically fainted when he recognized the man. Instead, though, his jaw dropped to the table, his eyes bugged out even more than before, if that was possible and he couldn't help his surprised cry:

"VEGETA?!!!!!"

He blushed to the root when he realized that, because of his little outburst, all eyes in the restaurant where centered on him, including those of the pair at the end of the room who had stop kissing upon hearing the shout and were now staring at him with something akin to shock. After a few moments the room started to fill with noise and soft talking as everybody returned to their previous conversations, but he kept looking at the pair and saw as Bulma seemed to recover from the surprise and told something to Vegeta. Something about go to see Yamcha himself, he guessed when he saw the other man frown at her words and begin to shake his head trying to discourage her of the idea, but then Bulma leaned over till her mouth was next to his ear, her hand rested on his chest suggestively and she had a wicked gleam in her eyes when she whispered something to him. Yamcha saw Vegeta smirk at her words and reluctantly accept her proposition. She then took his hand in hers and started to Yamcha's table.

Yamcha had all but forgotten about Sam until she spoke again. She had seen the exchange between the pair, too and was excited about the prospect of finally meeting Bulma Briefs. "Oh, Yamcha! I'm going to meet Bulma Briefs, can you imagine? I'm so nervous!! I didn't think you'd do something like that, all the restaurant was looking at you, you could have called them a little more discretely, you know? But I guess it doesn't matter as long as it worked, right?" She was sure that by now that something was bothering Yamcha about the whole ordeal and she guessed it had to do with Bulma and her date, but she couldn't really care less. What was now important is the approaching woman. She liked Yamcha and all, but they had just known each other for some weeks and she didn't feel like she had to confront him about his feelings towards the Briefs heir. It was true that they were dating, but it wasn't anything serious at the moment, just getting to know each other and see if they clicked. Pushing all thoughts of her relationship with the man seated in front of her to the side, she concentrated on the woman that had just arrived to their table with a bright smile on her face,

"Yamcha! What a surprise!! It's been a while since we last talked, right? I didn't expect to see you here. How are you?" 

"Hello, Bulma, you look wonderful tonight. I'm fine, same old same old, you know. I didn't expect to see you either, much less with _him_." The last word was spatted with such venom that Sam had to look twice to convince herself that it was Yamcha who had spoken it. That wasn't quite what she woild have expected from two old friends talking. Nothing like the light cheerful tone that Bulma used. What was his problem? But before Ms. Briefs could answer he kept on. "What the hell were you thinking, Bulma? What the hell are you doing with that asshole?! I knew you were rather upset and desperate after the breakup, but him? After all he did, you... I didn't think you'd fall this low!"

Vegeta didn't mind the comments. For one he didn't care what people thought of him, and besides, this was the weakling talking, not many individuals had less value in Vegeta's opinion than this weak and useless ningen. Bulma, on the other hand was furious! How did he dare insult her like this?! Desperate? She'd show him deseperate! He just had to wait and if everything went her way in a few months she'd ask him if he still thought she was desperate, let's see what he told her, then. On the outside, however, she kept her cool, the only one that noticed anything wrong was Vegeta, that was close enough to notice her clenched muscles. "Yamcha, I'll tell you that I've never felt this good before, I'm growing up, maturing, and I've realized that you can't please everybody all the time, you have to do things to please yourself regardless of what the others think. Well, this is one of those things, so I'd appreciate it if you keep those comments for yourself because they aren't gonna change anything. Now, I hope that won't trouble our friendship. I care about you and appreciate your worries and your opinion, just not in this one subject." She said in a deceivingly cheerful tone. She had expected some sort of comment like that, surely not that offending, but she'd make him eat his words when the time came, so she'd been ready to answer in that sweet tone. "That cleared, I think you should introduce your beautiful companion, don't you think?"

Yamcha had to restrain himself from glaring at her. So his opinion didn't matter to her, right? So they were going to be friends but he couldn't interfere in her love life now that he wasn't part of it - that's what she'd basically said with those well sounding words. Fine. Two could play the indifferent ex. "Od course, how rude of me! Bulma, I'd like you to meet Samantha, my girlfriend. Sam, this is Bulma Briefs." 

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Briefs. I've been dying to meet you ever since I saw you in the bathrooms. It was a great surprise to learn that you and Yamcha were friends, I can believe my luck."

"The pleasure is all mine, Samantha. And please, call me Bulma. I hear the 'Miss Briefs' crap all the time at work, no need to hear it when I get to go out, right?" Bulma said while winking to Sam in a playful and knowing way, as if the other would suffer what she was talking about in an everyday occurrence.

Sam liked this woman more by the minute. She was not only a genius, but she was a very beautiful woman and a very friendly and cheerful one, too. She liked how the other acted as any other woman her age would, unmindful about the social differences or the difference in wealth and popularity. She wasn't a conceited daddy's girl, nor an obnoxious woman ready to make it clear that she knew she was more intelligent and thought herself superior to the rest of the world. She just seemed a woman who was meeting her friend's new girlfriend. Nothing more. "Of course, Bulma, and you can call me Sam."

"Okay. Then Sam, I'd like you to meet Vegeta." Said Bulma while trying to coax him to the front. They were still holding hands, and he'd positioned himself slightly behind her when they'd arrived to their table, his free hand coming to rest lightly, but possessively, on her waist. Finally he came to the front and extended his hand to Sam.

"Samantha." It was all he said but his eyes stared intensely into Sam's ones as if examining her. She thought he seemed able to see through her with those piercing black eyes.

"It's a pleasure to meet you too, Vegeta. Please call me just Sam, ok?" She tried to be friendly and lighten the mood since he seemed so serious, but he had gone back to his previous position behind Bulma and just gave her a "Hn." as an answer. She was slightly taken aback by that.

"Vegeta is a very quiet man and not very talkative." Bulma was saying, having seen the confused looked cross Sam's face and aware that he had a difficult character. They had already talked about that: even if they were acting as a pair, Yamcha knew them both so they had to stay in character as much as possible. It didn't really matter what Sam thought about Vegeta, but Bulma found herself liking the other woman and so she tried to make her feel comfortable around the moody prince. "Don't mind him very much. He'll talk to you if he has something to say, it's just his way. At first it annoyed the hell out of me, but with time I found out that being so quiet he made a great listener and you know that's not something easy to find in a man, ne?"

"Hahaha! You can say that, Bulma! That's what a good girl friend is for. To hear you out whenever you need it and to let you vent your frustrations – more times than not caused by men, becuase, let's face it, you have to take care of them, and look after them all the time, I don't know what they'd do without us! Really, sometimes I wonder if men aren't nearly more trouble than they're worth!" Sam snickered. 

"Ooh, girl! I like how you think!" It was all said in a joking manner and everybody understood it and nobody took offence, though that didn't mean that the men at the table would let them get out with this so easily.

"Is that so, Onna? I can think of a few ways to make myself 'worthy' enough to make up for all those troubles, and then some." Vegeta purred against Bulma's neck in a very sexy and suggestive tone, meaning it for Bulma, but loud enough so that Sam would hear too and with a meaningful look to the second one so that she understood that he wasn't going to let himself be made fun of without a good come back. "Besides, I'm sure those good girl friends of yours are also very useful when it comes to gossip about my 'worthiness', aren't they, _Bulma_?"

Sam was dumbfounded. She hadn't expected him to say anything at all, why with his reserved character and all, but what he'd actually said had left her speechless and his intense look in her direction had left her with no doubts that he COULD make himself worthy, despite all the trouble a relationship with such closed man could cause. She was rather hot, too, now. Hot, however, was an understatement when it came to Bulma. What he implied with that low sexy voice of his, clearly directed at her and with the soft tingling of his breath on her neck and his body lightly pressed to her back made her feel more than warm all over and she had to force herself to restrain the shiver of desire that threatened to course throughout her body.

Yamcha for his part was sick of this. The fucking bastard was not only making Bulma all hot for him, but was making Sam - his girlfriend - too. What's with these women! The guy's a jerk throughout all the conversation, he's even rude when he's introduced to Sam, and he just says a sentence and has both women a puddle of goo in his hands. A very hot and bothered goo, at that. So, he decided, it was time to put a stop to this meaningless conversation and try for something else. "Well Bulma, and how's work going?" he knew from experience that that was a safe subject to bring up, so safe in fact that it could get boring. "You know what? Sam here has been studying what you've done."

Sam caught the strange, tense note in his speech and realized that it was just an excuse to change the subject. What was troubling him this much? But she didn0t have to dwell on it too much as Bulma began talking to her and questioning her about her studies and soon they were both engaged in a conversation about what they both loved and understood most, and it weren't the men standing with them.

Vegeta had zoned the onnas chatter as soon as they started with the boring theories of some of the projects that  the woman was working at at the moment. She seemed to have taken a liking to the weakling's girl, and even though it wasn't planned, he could already see the benefits from such a friendship to the plan, so he didn't mind them chatting away as if they forgotten he was there, at least for a while. They couldn't stay much, anyway. This was just a first impression, and the shorter the better. They just had to manage to make some kind of arrangement to get to see them again. Meanwhile, though, he caught sight of the weakling glaring at him with as much hatred as he could muster. ~ If his trying to intimidate me with that sorry excuse for a glare his doing a very poor job of it. Oh well, I better do something productive while the woman isn't listening. And have some fun at the same time. *big, scary smirk* ~ With some 'fun' in mind he locked gazes with the weakling and gave him one of his own glares back.

Yamcha took this as his cue. "What do you think you're doing, Vegeta? Are you playing with her? Using her? Are you trying to humiliate her? Are you trying to make her become a slut? What, with that show you made her put up in a public place like this, I'm sure it was all your doing! She would have never done something like that!" 

It was all whispered. It was clear to Vegeta that Yamcha didn't want either woman to catch onto what they were talking. All the better for Vegeta! Aside from that, he was amused at what the weakling thought, he was giving him a lot of power over the woman, he was mildly proud for the unintended praise. Such a stupid man, Yamcha was! "Oh, I'm not playing with nor using her, and even though I must admit it was my idea, she had no problem go with it. Tell me something, ningen, what did you think when you knew she was on my lap while on a restaurant like this, when you saw us kissing like that there in front of everyone? Were you aroused by the thought? Would have you liked that she would have done something like this when she was with you? That she would have been this daring? I think that makes more sexy, don't you?" Vegeta could see he was having an effect on Yamcha. He had made a blind guess, but quite a possible one because he knew what Yamcha had told her when they broke up.  Now he had him unsettled. "She would never do something like that, you say? Maybe not when she was with you she wouldn't, that's right, do you want to know why? Because you were never man enough for her." He knew that wasn't entirely true, or at least not the best way to word it, but this was the better way to do the most damage possible. The problem had been that the woman needed to mature, to grow up and gain some confidence. She needed a challenge to do so, someone that would encourage her in the right direction and wouldn't shelter from everything. Yamcha wasn't able to do any of that: nor was he a challenge to her – more like a puppet – nor could he help her mature. He had just really talked to the woman a couple of times aside from their arguments, but it was obviously clear to him that she was still too immature in every way – in what Yamcha had in mind right now, Vegeta was fairly sure she'd become a very attractive woman, an a tease, at that: she was beautiful and witted and had a very sharp tongue, she had potential. "You wouldn't let her grow up, she needed a man at her own level, a man that would pose a challenge and that could go along with her when she matured and didn't fall behind. You, pathetic excuse for a male, are not that man." That left Yamcha gaping at him, with a look half way between angry and confused and, perhaps, a tad bit insecure. Feeling that his goal had been accomplished, Vegeta turned to Bulma, who was still talking to Sam, tightened his hold on her pressing her against himself and whispered to her loud enough that the other two at that table would hear. "Onna, we should be heading home, now. You and I were in the middle of something I'd like to finish, you know? You can always meet with the girl another day and chat to your heart's content." 

Bulma went quickly from dimly annoyed from being rather rudely interrupted, to acutely aware of the man whispering to her firmly pressed against her back, to rather impressed at his astuteness and the seemingly effortless way he always found the right thing to say so that things went his way. This time he'd manage to make them meet again in a way that he seemed to be doing them a favor. As all this passed through her head she heard Sam saying: "Oh, that'd be wonderful, Bulma. That is, if you don't mind, of course. But I'd love to know more about your work."

"Of course not! You're a very intelligent woman, yourself, Sam, and I'd love to show you some of what I'm doing, too, if you'd like, so what do you say about coming to CC someday this week? Let's say around... wednesday?"

Sam was beyond excited, at this point, this was not meeting Bulma Briefs and talking a little with her, she was giving her the opportunity to go to her labs and take a look at some of her projects!! Life was good. "Really? Oh, I'll be there, for sure! As soon as you want me there."

"Very well, then, why don't you come by nine, this way we'll have all day to ourselves, I'm quite ahead of work so I can allow myself the luxury of taking a whole day off." Seeing the girl nod enthusiastically Bulma leaned over her and whispered for only Sam to hear, "Now we'll have to be going, though, I don't want to make Vegeta wait, and I can hardly wait, myself." She said, winking. She knew that was a rather clumsy attempt to spice it up a little, but she was trying, and she could see that the other woman had understood just fine.

"Sure, no prob, I'd be dying to get home if I had someone like him!!" she whispered back. And then she straightened back and said for everyone to hear, "Well then, see ya this Wednesday, Bulma! It's been a pleasure to meet you, Vegeta, I hope we'll again sometime."

"Till this Wednesday, Sam. See you, Yamcha. Bye!!"

Vegeta gave a nod to Sam as all hiis goodbye, and a meaningful look at Yamcha, that the other couldn't look back, so he just looked at Bulma and bid her an absent goodbye.

With that Vegeta started pushing Bulma away with his hold on her waist. They had already paid, so he just took her to the front door and to the car, which was exactly in front of the window of the restaurant. He took a quick look inside the restaurant and saw both Sam and Yamcha still looking at them from their table and decided to put just a last act for good measure. When they reached the car, instead of letting go of her, he led her to the other side of the car, to the driver's door and before she could even open her purse to look for the keys he pushed her against the side of the car and kissed her. It was like the kiss at the restaurant, mind-blowing. This time she knew what to expect and he turned the kiss more hot and when he finally let go of her swollen lips, he kept kissing his way along her jaw, her ear, he suckled on her ear lobe, undid the couple of buttons that held the neck of the dress up and then went to her neck and her collarbone, kissing and licking and nibbling.

She was in her own little world of pleasure. Nobody had ever had this kind of effect on her. He had said he was rather good at this, but she had thought it was his macho ego talking. She had been veeery wrong! When he got to her neck and collarbone and started nibbling and kissing she couldn't keep her moan in, and she even threw her head back presenting him with as much skin as she could.

After a little while he slowed his ministrations, which went from hot and arousing to calming and relaxing. He just caress her skin, nuzzled her neck a little andgave her little pecks going back the path he'd come previously. By the time he got to her mouth and gave it a little kiss and then just ghosting his lips against hers she had calmed down and was able to drive them back safely. So when he finally let go of her and went to his side of the car she took the keys from her purse, entered the car and drove them to CC.

She had a rather good idea of the motives behind his actions: she had seen a shocked Yamcha and a rather flushed Sam watching them intently through the window when she'd thrown her head back.

Seemed that the plan was working rather well, for the moment.

-----------------------

Finally I've got chapter four out! Wow, that was hard! Hey, I know, it's been over 4 months, I think, but this IS a very long chapter... besides, I think I said before I'm a rather slow writer, so don't expect quick updates from me... I'm sorry. Oh, and because of the big wait I decided to post it as soon as I've finished it, which was about 10 minutes ago, so it's not beta-read... I'll have it beta-read and repost it again then, but for now I hope this is good enough.

I'd just like to make a little comment about a very important, I think, part of the fic: I know I may be making Vegeta and Bulma seem to begin to be attracted to one another (Vegeta saying all those things about Bulma needing to grow up and insinuating that he was the man she needed and thinking that she's beautiful and all, and Bulma all that hot and bothered every time Vegeta touches her), well that's not like that. I'm trying to make Vegeta a jerk and all, but a very sensible one, and one that doesn't lie to himself. We all have read fics were Vegeta denies again and again that she may be attractive or any other good quality that she may have, well, I think he is intelligent enough to not do that and has enough psychology to see that when fully mature she may become an amazing woman... From now, all that he may start feeling is some kind of respect for her. For her part, as it'll be explained later on, Bulma is just amazed at what he can do with his hands and mouth... no deep feeling to it, ok?

Well, that's it for now, hope to see ya all in the next chap, whenever it comes!^^


	5. Sam

Disclaimer: Don't own DBZ. Sam is mine, though (I forgot to say in the last chapter, but don't steal her from me! L)

**Sam**

A peaceful forest surrounding a lake. The sun just poking its nose over the horizon dying everything in orange tones. The birds starting with their morning song, waking the still slumbering animals to a new day. The scene a study in calm and serenity.

Suddenly a shout shatters the heavenly calm sending all animals scattering for refuge.

"Fuuuuuck! God damn it, Vegeta! I can't believe how much of an ass you can be! After last night's success you'd think you would be in a good mood, satisfied at the very least, but nooooo, Mr-stick-up-the-ass won't even relax a little. I thought that seeing how well things are going that maybe this morning we'd skip the usual training and talk about last night, about what we're gonna do next... I don't know, enjoy it!" She would never understand this man: things start to go their way and he gets even more cranky than usual, making her practice some boring meditation exercises that she already knew. This morning wasn't for meditation. Things were great and she'd woken the happiest in a long while and with so much energy she could barely keep still, much less meditate.

"Enjoy? Enjoy what, Onna? What's there to enjoy? 'Last night's sucess' she says... For fuck's sake, Onna, last night was a frigging disaster! You want to talk about last night? Let's talk about last night. Where do we start? Maybe we could talk about the way you kept forgetting the plan, or the nervous wreck you were all night, or the longing looks you kept giving the weakling through all the dinner, or how you kept what you thought was a big problem to yourself or... oh, let's not forget: how you fucking broke down in the middle of the restaurant!!" His voice had started calm and mocking but had been getting louder and louder till he ended practically shouting to her face, that much was the frustration and irritation the whole situation caused him, specially since she seemed blissfully unaware of this and too fucking happy! Didn't she see? Didn't she care? This was her plan after all, how could she be so happy and want to celebrate after last night?!

With those questions going through his head he tried to calm down somewhat. It wouldn't do to reprimand her for loosing control of her emotions just to do so himself. And so, with a calmer if not less angry voice he went on, "Your baka boyfriend may have bought it – because he's too stupid to realize something's off – and the girl was too overwhelmed meeting you to see anything else, but last night was a failure, anyone with a couple of brain cells would have seen right through our little act!"

"Shit Vegeta, you gotta be kidding! Last night was not a failure! Yamcha believed it, Sam believed it and we're gonna be seeing them again soon. We accomplished our goals, that's a success in my book! So I lost control for a little while? No biggie! I got everything under control again before anyone noticed, didn't I? And besides, what'd you expect? This is my life that it's at stake here. You go and keep your cool through everything like the cold, insensitive bastard you are, but some of us have blood in our veins and feel."

"Look bitch, you may delude yourself as much as you want but the truth is you wouldn't have been able to pull yourself together on your own, no fucking way! If I hadn't been there to save your useless ass you would have ended exploding and crawling to the weakling begging him to take you back! I may be a cold, insensitive bastard to you, but just so that you know, if anything went well last night was thanks to me and that I was cold and insensitive. Look what good your pathetic feelings did to you!"

She was furious! How dare he say all those things to her? She was not pathetic nor was she useless, she'd done her best last night! "You think you can go off on me like that, saying it's all my fault, that I did nothing right... and you? You saved the night, right? You had to go and get little useless Bulma out of trouble, you were flawless, Mr. Perfect, and I'm the one to blame! Yeah right! And that's why you're taking it out on me, making me do some boring exercises that are not even at my level. We did this shit and went on a while ago, remember? Maybe I should go and ask someone else to train me... maybe Son-kun, at least he would pay attention and make me do the right exercises!" Just as she finished her little tirade she realized she had lost track of the topic at hand. She'd gone from furious at his words to irritated at the seemingly pointless exercises he'd been making her do, first implying that it was his way of punishing her for what he thought she had done wrong to end up saying that he simply was a careless trainer which, she knew, was totally false and uncalled for. Now, seeing the look that settled on Vegeta's face she feared she'd gone too far.

When he spoke again his face was as blank as ever, not even his eyes gave way to what he might be thinking, he might as well have been made of stone, and his tone was deadly calm, hardly above a whisper. "You may disagree with me about last night's performance, you might have argued about that, exposed your reasons and I would have exposed mine, this is, after all, your plan and your boyfriend, but when it comes to the training 'I' am your sensei. You might not respect my title of Prince, might not respect my heritage and my culture and I'll let it pass because I don't respect yours either, less everyday I spend here, but I thought that even your self-centered brain could realize that as your sensei you must show some respect to me. And even if you don't, the fact that I've been helping YOU in your training implies I deserve more respect than what you have shown, even by your ningen standards.

I take training very seriously, be it mine or someone else's, and I won't tolerate you even suggesting something else. You think Kakarot will do better? Then by all means go and ask him because nobody is going to train you here.

Out of my GR."

That had been Sunday morning. Right then Bulma had been so shocked – both at what she'd said and how he'd reacted – that she had just done as he asked and silently left.

After that he'd locked himself in the GR and hadn't gone out in all day. Even though she was still angry about what he had said about the night before and couldn't disagree more, she knew that the rest hadn't been called for and couldn't be any further from the truth. As a matter of fact, she thought exactly the opposite and thus she wanted… no, needed to apologize. She had no hope that he would forgive her and even less that he would even consider training her again, but she had to tell him what she really thought. It was the least he deserved.

With this in mind she'd waited up for him to come out. She hadn't made him a special dinner or anything, this time. It was not the time to sweet talk him or to 'appease' him with food, she wanted him to realize that she really meant it. When it was past two in the morning and he still hadn't come out, however, she had to finally admit defeat and go to bed.

It had been like this for the last few days: he'd come out to eat – she knew since the food kept disappearing from the fridge – and to clean up and sleep a little – she figured – but always when she was either at work or sleeping.

And so, she hadn't seen nor hair nor hide from him ever since, hadn't been able to talk to him or to apologize… NOTHING, and she was going to do so face to face! She was growing more irritated as the days passed with that attitude of him, it was kind of childish, something like 'we're not friends any more and I'm not gonna talk to you!' and besides, it wasn't that big a deal, right? Sure, she'd fucked up and said some nasty, untruthful things… but this was enough! Since when were his feelings this easily hurt? The guy had no feelings at all, for crying out loud!

Anyway, that was on Sunday and today was Wednesday and Sam was going to be there anytime so she better forget all that for the day and put a happy face for the girl.

Bulma had shown Sam all around the compound and the facilities. Sam was fascinated, such a big place, all dedicated to any type of scientific research… it was amazing, like one enormous lab with top technology. And still they had the tour through the main building. Bulma had left that one for the last, saying that the best better for the last. Sam couldn't even begin to imagine how something could be better than what she'd already seen! Anyway, that was left for the afternoon and right now they were heading for the kitchen to grab some lunch.

"Bulma, this is wonderful! It's the dream workplace of any scientist! Is there any field CC doesn't touch?"

"Mmmmm… well, I don't know. We work on anything promising. Anything that might be worth our time… it doesn't really matter if there is a commercial product as the result of all our investigations, sometimes they turn out to be useless and sometimes they lead to something else entirely, but that doesn't matter, the company can afford that. Any scientist in our employment can present a report on any project they would like to take, if the report is well documented and we think that it might be interesting to work on then we give the okay and give them a lab and some staff currently free, depending on the project, and leave them to their devices. They must bring in a report every month on how the project is going and the advances they're making. This way we can control that our scientists don't get stuck in something useless and we can offer some advice of our own and some indications, along with providing more resources if we believe the project has gotten too big for what we originally gave. This way we encourage individual thinking and creativity and our personal is more content with the job knowing that they can work on their own projects and that we'll support them if they're good. By the way Sam, you have some very interesting ideas of your own, you know that?"

"Me? Interesting ideas?" To say that Sam was surprised at the turn of conversation wouldn't be enough. Though she was rather proud of the compliment too, it was Bulma Briefs who'd given it, after all!.

"Yes, you! Don't look at me like that! I've been paying attention to the comments you made of some of the projects we have seen through the morning and while some of your comments are rather far fetched, others were very ingenious and we might be interested in trying them out. Tell me Sam, do you have a job, at the moment?"

Sam was sure her eyes would soon fall out of their sockets the way they must have been bulging. She looked at Bulma again and sure enough the woman seemed to be dead serious about it. Was Sam understanding this for what it was? Was really Bulma Briefs offering her a job at CC? Just because of some half-minded comments she'd made?? Or was she just going to make a fool of herself when she opened her big mouth? Hell! Who cares if I look like a fucking dumb-ass? This might be the opportunity of my life and CC surely seems the ideal place to work in.

"Actually, yes, I've got a job at the moment" Sam replied at length. At seeing the disappointed look on Bulma's face she went on, elated at being able to inspire such response from the other. "But to tell you the truth it ain't the best job in the world. As a matter of fact, I've been going form job to job for the last few years, never staying more than a few months because I haven't found a place I really like, yet, so I'd love to come work here. If that's what you proposing, of course!" She quickly added.

Bulma didn't answer outright. She seemed to be considering her next words carefully and Sam wondered if maybe she'd said something inappropriate. "Yes. Yes, that's exactly what I was proposing, but I don't know if that's such a good idea anymore. I mean, I still think you have a lot of potential and you'd be a good acquisition for CC, but I'm not very sure if I'd like to employ someone who is bound to leave me in a couple of months."

Sam finally realized what had set Bulma off and she had to mentally slap herself for her bad phrasing. "Err… well Bulma, to be completely honest I was hoping that this job could be the one. Let me explain why I last so little in every job. The thing is I'm a very curious person. When I finished my studies I received a few offers from different companies to go work with them. Many of the jobs seemed very interesting and finally I picked up the one that picked my interest the most, regardless of the money they paid since that wasn't a problem. The first few months it was wonderful, I had never done anything related to what we were working on and I learned a lot, but then things began to become mechanical. Like a routine that repeated itself day in and day out, so I decided to try some of the other jobs I had declined. But every time would be the same. At first all would be wonderful, learning a lot and working on something new, but after a while of working on the same thing I'd get bored and change jobs. That's why I think CC might be the solution. Here I can try anything I like. I won't be stuck with the same shit all the time. I can work on something and when that is done start with something else." She said, hoping that it would be enough to make Bulma want to employ her again.

Bulma look pensive at this. "Look Sam, I understand what you are saying. Really, I do because it happens to me all the time. I can't stay put for long. The ideas fill my head and once I've put one of them to paper and I'm beginning to develop it, some other will come to mind and it won't leave alone until I give up and start on this one instead, thus leaving my prior project to someone else to finish. But well, I guess that I'm lucky that I'm the owner and I can do this, but I won't allow any of my employers to start something and leave it half done, you know. Yeah, I know, you're probably thinking how hypocrite of me to do so, but that's how things are, and I've learned that sometimes it's better this way because many of my ideas end up doing wonderfully for CC's economy so it's a good thing I don't let any idea go unchecked. And I'm not being arrogant or anything, simply stating facts."

Sam burst out laughing at this. Bulma looked at her quizzically until she calmed down and explained. "Oh god! You're treating me on the same level you are, and you're afraid I'll think you're being arrogant! Bulma, you're a genius! Of course ideas fill your head and come and go so quickly you don't have time for all of them, but I'm no genius. Oh, I'm no dummy, that for sure, and I was one of the best of my promotion, but I'm no genius. My only problem is that I don't like to stay too long on something I already know, but I won't leave anything unfinished, I'm pretty throughout. While there's something left to do from a new project I'll do it. The problem comes when I'm doing the same thing over and over again."

Bulma then look thoughtfully at me. "Ok, look, I'll think about this, why don't you send me your CV and I'll look through it and then decide. Remind me later to give you my e-mail. I don't like the phone that much, so I usually don't give my number and instead prefer the e-mail. I hope you don't mind."

"No, that's fine, I'll send it over as soon as I get home."

After that they concentrated on their lunch, making idle conversation every now and then, but nothing more than the sporadic comment. When they finished it was still early and Bulma told her to go and have a walk through CC gardens since the main building would still be mostly empty, everybody on their lunch break. So they started up a little path surrounded by exotic plants wonderfully taken care of. Sam had never been a flower person or anything, as a matter of fact, she didn't have a single plant in her apartment since everything she bought ended up dying in a few weeks, much to her mother's consternation – the woman loved plants and had a small garden in her balcony. Of course, even if she were capable of taking care of some plants, her mother would still bug her for so may other things like finally settling down, with a man, to form a family, to at least try an have more of a social life, to visit more… oh, the list was pretty long, her mom had once stuck it on Sam's fridge so that she'd have a constant reminder – sometimes the woman creeped even Sam out – but that was a whole different matter. Still she could appreciate beautiful plants.

Bulma noticed Sam staring at her mother's plants. "You like them? Like flowers too? They're my mom's. She takes care of all of them personally. Once my dad suggested hiring a gardener to help her and my mom nearly blew a gasket over it. You should have seen my dad's face then, it's so rare for mom to be anything but her cheerful self…"

"Oh, they're very beautiful, indeed. I don't know much about flower care taking, but I think your mom does a great job. As a matter of fact, I'm not even good with bouquets or the sort when I'm given one. Imagine that when Yamcha and I started going out he brought me a really nice bouquet - it must have cost him a lot – but I forgot to put it in water and by the time I came back home all the flowers were ruined." Sam explained in a sheepish tone. "I was very sorry, the flowers were very beautiful, but I think he was more sorry than I was. He didn't say anything at the moment, I think he didn't want to because we were just beginning, but I'm sure that he was not happy with all the money he'd wasted that afternoon."

Bulma couldn't help but laugh at this knowing damn well how hard it was for Yamcha to let go a single yen. Still, it was amazing he'd gone and bought her flowers. He must have wanted it to work out with Sam real bad. Bulma was curious. "Oh, poor Yamcha. Still, it's very nice of him to buy you flowers, in all the time I've known him I could count the times I've seen him go and buy his girl something like this, a nice little thing just because." She tried to keep the bitterness out of her tone.

"Really? Well, I wouldn't know, but I think that the problem was that he didn't have a fucking clue as to what to do with me. I mean, you just had to see him the first time I met him. I friend of mine from the college a couple of years behind me had invited me to one of their parties. I had gone to enough in my time to know how it was and still knew some people from there so I went. And wouldn't you know who was there…"

"Yamcha was at a college party?!!!" Bulma wouldn't have been more surprised if Sam had said he'd been at a kid's birthday party as a clown.

"Yep! Hahahaha, you should have seen him trying to flirt with the girls there… Oh god, if it hadn't been so pathetic it would have been hilarious. The pick-up lines he was using and the moves… gods, it was like he was at some disco or something picking up bimbos. After a while of this I couldn't help but go over there and tell him to stop it. I told him that he was making a fool out of himself, that those girls wouldn't fall for those lines and that he'd better go somewhere else where he actually fit in. At this he just seemed to deflate. He fell down onto the sofa with a groan and finally told me that he just didn't know what to do. Turned out that my first impression was right and he would have been way more at home at some disco using those horrible pick-up lines on some dumb barbie or something. But he explained that he was tired of those women, he got bored with them and had decided that he needed to try something else, a woman with more in the head than hair and so, when a teammate had told him of this party his girlfriend's college friends were planning he'd decided that he could give it a try… surely, if we were college students we could keep up a conversation.

In the end we spent the rest of the night talking on that sofa and before parting I gave him my phone number. He was horrible as a flirt, but he seemed a nice enough guy." Sam finished her story.

Bulma had been wavering between laughing at the pathetic image Yamcha presented and wondering how the hell had she fallen that hard for a guy like him. She guessed that Sam's last sentence was it: he wasn't all that much, but you could count on him, he was a good guy. Bulma was deep in thought going through all this and missed what Sam said next. "Excuse me?"

"I said that now that you know how I met him you could tell me how he managed to become friends with someone like you!" She said with a smirk, wondering that if it had been so difficult for Yamcha to even get a college girl, how the hell had he managed to befriend a fucking world wide known genius!

"Oh, well, you see, I met him when I was a lot younger and had been traveling around the world, seeking adventures and the perfect boyfriend… Yeah, yeah, don't look at me like that! I was young and naïve and hadn't even been given a single kiss, so yeah… Anyway, thing is I was traveling with a couple of friends – I guess you could call Oolong a friend – through the dessert when we came along this bandit and his pet. That was Yamcha. He was nothing like he is nowadays… first thing he did was try and steal a couple things from us… besides he was so shy! He couldn't even talk to a woman without blushing, can you believe that?…"

And like this, Bulma went on telling Sam some of the adventures they'd had looking for the dragonballs oh so many years ago before they had to go to the main building to finish Sam's visit. Or, at least, the edited version of said adventures.

"Hey Sam, what do you say to stay and have dinner with me? It'd be the perfect end for the day, don't you think? Something nice at home to forget a little about work and get to know each other." It was late evening by then and Sam had been hinting to having to leave for the last hour. Bulma had the feeling that the young woman didn't really want to go and Bulma herself really wanted to know more about the other woman. She was very intelligent and she'd make a valuable addition to CC but from the glimpses she'd caught of the woman beneath the scientist, she thought she'd make a great friend, too.

"Really?! I'd love that! … I mean… Won't Vegeta mind?" she asked, recalling a conversation they had during lunch. Yamcha had told Sam that he knew Vegeta because he was staying at CC for a while, and having lunch there with Bulma and not seeing him anywhere she'd finally asked. Bulma told her that yes, he used to live at CC and yes, they still lived together but they'd moved to a little house near the lake so that they could be on their own. Sam didn't want to intrude in their life considering the lengths they'd gone to have some privacy.

"Vegeta? Mmmm… Actually I had all but forgotten about him, so excited I was about everything." Bulma said with a sheepish face. "But don't worry, he'll probably still be training. Sometimes he does that and doesn't come in till real late. You saw him, he's not your typical man, doesn't see the need to have dinner together every day… he's more about 'quality' rather than 'quantity'… He really makes up for the missed dinners, though, and I don't really mind. I myself don't want to be that committed to another one after so little time." She said thoughtfully. All in all it was a honest answer. She had never really thought about it, but she found herself liking this recently discovered freedom and didn't want to loose it so shortly after.

"Oh, in that case I'd love to have dinner with you."

On their way to the house Sam had to admit to some disappointment at the news that Vegeta wouldn't be there and Bulma couldn't help but burst out laughing: it was the first time that she knew that someone was _disappointed_ at not seeing the cranky prince, even if the other was just thinking about missing the 'views'. She finally relented and said that she'd let him know that Sam was staying and see if he could finish early and join them.

So when they arrived she went directly to the GR, Sam right at her heels, and pushed the button for the intercom – they'd installed it at his request so that she wouldn't have any excuse to cut out the power of the machine as she used to do to get his attention.

"Hey sexy," she said so that he understood that something was up and, maybe, he'd have mercy and not snap anything too nasty, "I've just got home. Sam is with me, I've invited her to dinner. You try and join us… please?" Her only response was his ragged breath as he went on with his routine. "Well, we'll go and start it." And she cut the connection. She'd used a tone of voice sometimes playful and always cheerful, but she'd done the whole thing for Sam's benefit because she knew without a doubt that he wasn't going to do it, much less after what had happened on Sunday.

The house wasn't exactly what Sam would have expected. For one, it was a little house made of wood in the middle of a forest, as far away from any trace of civilization as possible and without even a decent ground road to get there – you had to follow a barely visible path between the trees hardly wide enough for two people to walk comfortably side by side. Add to that the fact that one of the richest people in the world had no TV, no fax, no mobile phone and not even a conventional one in all the house – the only electronic devices they had were a stereo and a computer in Bulma's office – and you can imagine why Sam would be surprised. Besides, Bulma had entered the house and said "That's the kitchen, the dinning room and the living room." Pointing to said zone every time. "Out there there's a little porch. What do you think?" but she had not waited for her answer. Bulma wasn't interested in what other people had to say about her home, as she'd said to Yamcha the other day, there were times when the one you have to please is yourself and she was beginning to understand that. Instead, she had gone directly to the kitchen to start with dinner. She had not offered to show Sam upstairs.

Sam had to admit, though, that it suited the woman. Bulma didn't like the spotlight and was very reserved when it came to her personal life, that much was clear after just a few hours with her. She had to say that she liked the house, or the part of it that she'd seen. It was practical and elegant but not impersonal or cold.

After briefly assessing the room she went to Bulma and asked if there was anything she could do.

"Why don't you lay the table? Dinner will be ready in no time, I'm making some pasta and steak and salad to accompany it all. That's OK with you?" Bulma said over her shoulder, not stopping whatever she was doing.

"Yeah, sounds fine."

"Great, then. You've got everything in that sideboard next to the table. Tell me if you need anything."

"Well, now that you say it, where is the bathroom?"

"Oh, of course. Go upstairs, turn right. It's the first door at your right." She said without even turning from the oven.

"OK. Be right back." She said half way up the stairs, already.

When she got to the top she found herself in the middle of a hallway. It seemed the same right and left. She went right. It was true that she had to go to the bathroom, but she couldn't help but be curious about the house and its owner so when she finished she tried the other door in the bathroom that, she could only guess, lead to Bulma's bedroom. She opened and looked inside. It was too dark outside to see anything so she risked turning on the light. It was just a quick look and Bulma was downstairs; nobody would know.

She intended to make it quick and go back downstairs, just to see what her bedroom looked like, to satisfy her curiosity since Bulma herself wouldn't show her. It was a very simple room: a desk to one side, the bed and bedside table to the other. A door to the balcony and the wardrobe. Sam was debating whether it was worth the time and risk to go and take a peek at Bulma's wardrobe when suddenly:

"I don't think she would be happy if she knew you're here."

Sam's head whipped to the side so fast that she thought she'd nearly broken it. There he was, casually leaning against the door frame leading to the balcony, smug smirk in place, with black gi pants on tied up with a white sash, the T-shirt he intended to put on still in hi hand. He was fresh from the shower judging from the few remaining droplets that ran down the expanse of hi chest. He looked positively edible in Sam's humble opinion. But that wasn't the matter at hand.

"Err… Hi Vegeta! I was just taking a look, no harm done, I was just curious, really. It's just that she is so reserved with her things… I just wanted a quick glimpse." She said it all at once, without even breathing, she was so nervous. This was it, she'd screwed up this opportunity to work in something interesting and worthwhile, and with Bulma Briefs, no less. She was desperate and she was sure he could see it clearly in her face.

"I see… OK, I'll let it slide this time, the Onna doesn't need to know. And yes, she is very reserved about her personal life but let me tell you something: you are the first person besides the Onna and me that has been to this house so if she doesn't want you to see something you'd do well to respect her wishes in the future. Had it been my room I wouldn't have been so _polite_."

He was having a great time seeing her suffer, she just knew, and she felt like a fucking open book under his gaze. He was slightly unnerving when he wanted. And scary. That at the end had been a clear waning and she intended to take heed of it. That's when it dawned on her:

"This is not your bedroom?? But you and her… I thought… and you've just moved here, the two of you, alone…"

Now she was very confused, but he wasn't phased in the least. "No, this is not my bedroom, my rooms are at the other end of the hallway. We had been living together for a while at her parent's, that's why we decided to move out when our relationship… changed like this. We believe, however, that it is too early to share a bedroom."

"That makes sense" Sam mumbled while musing it over. After a while, "So you say I'm the first to see the house… you're not kidding me, right?" she asked, but one look at his face told her clearly he wasn't one to joke. "No, you're not… Wow, that's very nice of her, I feel honored… wow…" he didn't make a comment. As a matter of fact he didn't react to anything and after a while she began to feel increasingly uncomfortable being alone with him, they better went downstairs where Bulma would be there to ease the tension. "Very well, then. Are you coming?"

Bulma was preparing the steak, water already boiling in a pot waiting for her to throw in the pasta. She didn't know how long it'd been, but she was fairly sure that it shouldn't take this long for Sam to come back down. At last she heard footsteps going down the stairs.

"Hey, Sam, at last! Took you long enough! What where you doing up there? I was ready to send a search party to look for you!" She said teasingly, hearing the other woman snort as she went back to laying the table. "Had it been at the CC building I could have understood you getting lost, but here it's not like-" She cut herself off when suddenly a strong pair of arms wound themselves around her waist and a very hard, very warm body pressed itself against her back.

"Mmmm… smells good, Onna." Came the throaty purr next to her ear, warm breath softly caressing the skin of her neck. She shivered, caught totally off guard.

"V-Vegeta??" To say that she was surprised would have clearly been an understatement. "What are you doing?" She got out, barely above a whisper.

"I'm nuzzling your neck. Why? Don't you like it?" Came the muffled reply. She could hear the amusement in his voice and could practically feel his smirk against her neck.

She couldn't say that she didn't like it… as a matter of fact, she liked it very much, he was very good at this, but- "You know what I mean!"

"Hn. You came looking for me, didn't you? I thought you wanted me to come and have dinner with the two of you, so here I am. It would have been very rude of me not to appear when we have our first guest, don't you think?" He said, having a great time with all this. Her astonishment must have been very obvious, even without seeing her face, since he chuckled a little and finally released her. He moved to the counter where some vegetables were waiting to be washed and chopped. "You finish there, I'll take care of the salad."

She could only nod dumbly from where she stood, her eyes never leaving him as he rummaged for a knife, warily eyeing him as if he was an alien… OK, so he WAS an alien, but you get the idea.

"Oh, and Onna," she looked at him. He was smirking. "you better take that out of the fire 'cause it doesn't smell so good anymore."

Huh?… Oh shit! Bulma thought as she hastily turned off the fire and inspected the darkened piece of meat. It was slightly burned, but nothing not edible. If careful to peel off the most darkened spots it would be good. It was a good think that she liked meat well-done.

After that everyone kept to themselves and their chores in a companionable silence only marred by the clinkering of cutlery and the rhythmic _toc-toc-toc_ of Vegeta's chopping. Enjoying the peacefulness of the room Bulma decided to take advantage of Vegeta's collaboration while it lasted. She'd confront him later, for now she was going to have a nice dinner with friends.

An hour later found the three of them comfortably seated around the table and the last remains of dinner. The two women had spent the dinner chatting about this and that and had ended telling Vegeta about the day they'd spent together at CC and the many ideas and concepts they had been discussing. Through all this he had barely said a word or two, though neither woman had really noticed, so engrossed they were in the conversation. Finally, during a brief pause in their talk, Bulma realized that she'd better bring dessert, since Vegeta was sure to be hungry after the little dinner she had made for him so as not to arouse suspicions from the other woman, least she decided to ask questions Bulma thought they were not ready to answer.

"Do you guys want desserts? Vegeta?" He gave her a look. "Riight. How silly of me to ask." She said rolling her eyes. She turned to Sam. "Do you want some ice-cream, too, Sam?"

"Ice-cream?? That's what Vegeta's look meant? How did you know?"

"Nah! That look meant something like 'What do you think, baka Onna?'" Bulma said making her voice sound lower in an attempt to imitate him which earned her a giggle from Sam and a glare from the Prince. "It was a silly question because that's the only thing Vegeta ever takes for dessert. He has a sweet tooth the size of this house, I tell you!" The last comment intensified the glare she was receiving ten fold.

"Really? Wow, Vegeta! I would have never thought so… it seems kind of out of character, ne?" Sam said with a grin from ear to ear.

Bulma burst out laughing. "You tell me! I couldn't believe it when I found out!" By now Vegeta was positively seething and Bulma thought it was not in her best interests to annoy him… any more, specially considering how things already were. "Anyway, Sam, do you want ice-cream or what?"

"Uh? Oh, yeah, sure! What flavor?"

"I think that there is a pot of lemon ice-cream left from the last time, and I bought some stracciatella and macadamia nuts yesterday."

"Hmmm… let's see… I think I'll have some of that lemon ice-cream, please."

"Sure, no problem. Vegeta?"

"Stracciatella."

"OK! Here, pass me your dishes. I'll go for the ice-cream." She said while piling the dishes and whatnot to make space for the dessert, when she saw Sam starting to get up and helping her. "No, no, Sam! Stay there! I can take it myself, thanks. I'll be back in no time." With that said Bulma picked up the plates and went to the kitchen, at the other side of the room leaving the other two to each other.

Sam had finally relaxed slightly within his presence after the hour spent chatting, but she wasn't totally at ease with him, yet, so she decided that she better say something before the silence became too much for her. "Hey, Vegeta, you've barely said anything all this time, have we been boring you? I mean, I know we haven't had any consideration, you probably didn't know what the hell we were talking about half the time, it's something that happens a lot to me, I get so engrossed telling my friends about my projects and whatnot that forget they can't understand what I'm talking about..." Seeing the dark look that he sent her, she quickly added "and I don't mean to say that you are stupid or anything, you know, just that well... this is not every day concepts we're talking about, but the kind of things you've got to have spent five years at a college to understand, and well, you don't look like-"

"Stop your babbling already! No, I haven't gone to college, and no, I'm not stupid either, and yes, your chatter has been boring to hell, but for you information I'll tell you that I could keep up with what you were talking about, even if I don't know all the technical crap. You scientists just have the fucking tendency to think that the rest of the world is oblivious when you start with the big words."

It was obvious to Sam that she'd said something that had ticked him off, even if she wasn't exactly sure what it was. She was pretty sure, though, that he didn't have the greatest of opinions about scientists in general. "I'm sorry, Vegeta, I didn't meant to offend you. I should learn to keep my mouth shut, you know, I always talk too much, and it's obvious that you don't like scientists, and I didn't know it, so I just went on and on…" Again he was sending her that glare and she realized that she was doing it again. "Sorry." She said sheepishly. After that, seeing that he wasn't going to reply and not standing the silence too long she decided to make him talk, it seemed the safest. "Anyways, why don't you like scientists?"

"None of your business."

What a conversationalist she thought to herself. "Ookay! And with your dislike of us scientists how come you're living with Bulma?? Yamcha told me you've been living here for nearly two years, now."

Bulma was bringing the desserts at that moment and Sam look at her in time to see her freeze for a moment and then force a smile on her face and finish serving. A bowl of lemon ice-cream for Sam and another one for herself and the whole pot of stracciatella for Vegeta. Vegeta, on the other hand, just gave her an appraising look, as if debating whether it was worth it the time to answer her questions. Finally he seemed to come to a decision, which Sam supposed was in her favor for he answered. "My people was massacred when I was a child; just a handful of us survived. A few years ago I discovered that there was another survivor and that he lived here. He left our home when he was a baby and thus didn't know anything about us, so I came looking for him. Turned out he was the Onna's best friend. I'd been traveling around all these years and didn't have a home to go to so we struck a deal of sorts with the Onna: I showed her some of the technology my people used and she let me stay here for a while."

Bulma's face had shown more and more surprise the more the man said, Sam observed. She was sure that by the end, the other woman's jaw had to be hurting from the way it was hanging so low. Sam wasn't sure what had caused such reaction, but from the little she knew about Vegeta she was pretty sure that he didn't usually talk this much or about such things. As a matter of fact, Sam was pretty sure that he'd said more to her in that answer than he'd said to her since she'd known him and from Bulma's reaction Sam would bet that it was no easy thing to get an straight answer out of the man. Somehow she felt that he'd decided not only whether to answer her question or not, but to let her have an insight of his life for the night, meaning that he'd answer her questions. Or so she hoped. And she wasn't about to waste it, the man seemed very interesting. "Damn! All your clan killed?? That's horrible! What was the name of your clan? I've always felt very curious about different cultures and traditions, maybe I've heard of them."

It took him a few minutes to answer this one. He had decided that they needed to create some background for their story to be believable. Because of this he intended to answer the necessary questions tonight, this way it wouldn't seem that this relationship came out of the blue, and he was confident that the girl would spill it to the weakling. It was her that was curious and asking, just the better that it benefited them, too. Still, he hadn't thought that she'd be curious about his people; his past he could deal with, but his people was a sore subject. Not even the Onna or Kakarot knew much about them. "Saiyans."

"Oh, first time I hear about them, how were they like?" Sam noticed that now even Bulma's attention was picked up, and not surprised or anything, just genuinely interested.

"The Saiyans were warriors. Our people were some of the most skilled warriors ever. Proud and strong, the only thing more important than strength in our culture was honor. My culture is very different from yours. Even our technology was different from yours which is why I'm here."

"Uh? I don't understand. What do you mean 'why you're here'? I thought you came looking for Bulma's friend…"

"Baka! I mean why I'm living with the Onna. My people had developed the necessary technology to improve our lifestyle, which is not the same as yours. I'm showing the Onna some of it so that she can either adapt it to your needs or use some of the principles for other projects."

"But you are a fighter, not a tech! How can you-?"

"Don't start again, girl, I've warned you once!!" She was trying his patience. Even if it was in his best interest to answer her questions, that didn't mean that he had to like it or that she could get away with stupid commentaries! He took a deep breath, though, and tried to explain himself seeing the reaction his outburst had caused. "I told you I understand the basics so I can tell the Onna how a machine works and she can figure the details by herself. Hasn't she told you about our current project? A gravity simulator." And if he could pass the attention over to Bulma for a while all the better.

"Bulma! How come you haven't told me anything about it?!"

Bulma was having some problems keeping up with everything that had been happening tonight. They had some talking to do as soon as Sam left, that was for sure. At the moment, however, she was doing some fast thinking trying to come up with something believable to add to Vegeta's story. "Um… well, you see, I didn't think you'd be interested in it. It's a personal project of sorts, CC as a company doesn't know about it, the only ones working on it have been the two of us and my father. It's not as if it has much potential as it is, a gravity chamber as we've built would be of use to the army and to some labs that needed to recreate specific conditions of gravity." She was getting into the story little by little and she found herself thinking about the GR as if it really were a project. "In spite of this, though, we've been working on the gravity chamber for over a year, now, improving it and adding new appliances that make it more serviceable and easy to work with because the principle in itself may be very useful in other contexts, life in space and spaceships being just an example. I can show you the blueprints and explain some of our latest ideas to you another day, if you want."

"That'd be great, it seems very interesting! But tell me, Bulma, how do you test it? It's not as if you could put a balance in there and some weights, it would get crushed eventually, right?"

"Oh, that's part of what Vegeta does. He can withstand the gravity pretty well and he's been training in the chamber prototype we've built since the beginning. By now he can tell if the gravity is that which he has asked for, if it's stable, if there's any danger… he usually manages to push the machine to its limit. Furthermore, to add more challenge to the training he usually comes up with very interesting ideas. What you said about the balance being crushed, well, we've developed a special material of which we make some bots for his training that is capable, if the robot is small and light enough, to withstand as high gravity as Vegeta himself, which is quite a bit."

"Oh, so you must be a very skilled fighter, right? Don't laugh at me, ok, but when I was younger I went to some classes of self-defense. I thought it'd be wise, you know, this is a big city and I live alone… don't know. Anyway, I liked the adrenaline rush of the fight - even if we didn't do much, it was just self-defense – so much that when those classes ended I took up some karate classes, but I was too busy to go every day and I finally discovered that at the college's gym – I was still studying back then – they offered some free classes called 'body-combat' that just mixed a little bit of everything: boxing, karate, tai-chi… and made a choreography with all those moves in time with the music, fast music. That was great, I'd spend the whole day sitting and studying and then, before going home, I'd go and spend all excess energy kicking and punching at thin air. Now I have a punching bag at home… it's not the same, but I can beat the shit out of something when I'm too frustrated for words and it feels great!" she finished grinning at her two companions. Vegeta's face was impassive as always, but there was the slightest bit of amusement in his eyes. "I told you not to laugh at me, Vegeta!"

"I'm not laughing, girl."

"Maybe not on the outside."

That only got her an smirk, which was answer enough for Sam. "I know I'm just an amateur and I'm not pretending to be a very skilled fighter, ok? I just do this for fun and I was just commenting on it, I thought you'd like this topic better… hey, Bulma, you should try it, and having someone at home who really knows how to go about it, Vegeta could give you a hand!"

That didn't get her the response she was expecting. Instead, Bulma suddenly went tense and all the amusement left Vegeta's face in an instant. Finally it was he who answered, "Oh, the Onna already thought about it, but after a while decided that I didn't take her seriously enough and that she'd be better off with Kakarot, who is bound to take this _very_ seriously and will do a better job than me." The words dripping with as much sarcasm and venom as he could muster.

"Oh, come on Vegeta! That was said in the heat of the moment and I really didn't mean it, but you've been avoiding…" she suddenly remembered Sam and changed the 'me' she had intended on saying "…the subject since then! How the hell I'm supposed to apologize if you won't even let me open my mouth?!"

"Oh, sorry, how silly of me to forget that it's MY fault, right? That's how things go with you, you're never at fault."

By now both of them had completely forgotten Sam who was doing her best to melt in the chair or, at the very least, become as invisible as possible. The both of them were great people when civil, but when angry they were both forces to reckon. After the last comment Bulma had thrown her napkin to the table with as much force as she had and had stood up.

"Fuck you Vegeta! Here I am trying to apologize to you, admitting that what I said was wrong and totally out of place and you go pulling that victim crap on me? Well Vegeta, for the record, it was MY fault, all right, but it was your fault as well, you had no right to put me down like that when things were going so well. Maybe it didn't go as smoothly as you wanted but it was no reason to belittle me the way you did. You think you're so perfect well, guess what, you're not!"

At this point Vegeta suddenly got up from the table and before anybody could react he was in front of Bulma, crushing her to him and kissing her to an inch of her life. At first Bulma went suddenly tense but it took her only a moment to melt into his embrace and kiss back with as much passion and hunger, hands roaming each other's body desperately. Meanwhile Sam was left gaping at the two and idly wondering how they could have gone so easily from biting each other heads off to practically fucking on the dinning-room table, all the while so focused on each other that they had totally forgotten about her. One thing was for sure: they were very well suited for each other.

After a while of this and no sign of an end in the near future Sam decided that it would be best for her to say good-bye and leave the two of them to each other before things got too heated and Sam got an eyeful Not that I would mind, they're HOT together!!! But somehow I don't think they'd be very pleased about it… So she tried clearing her throat a couple of times and when that didn't get her any reaction she started hesitantly all the while edging slowly to the front door. "Um… guys? You remember I'm here, right? I think I'll be going, you know, seeing as you're so busy and everything…"

Finally Bulma seemed to hear her, separated hastily from him and took a few steps back looking around with wide, dazed eyes which finally rested on the other woman when she turned around. "SAM! Oh my! I didn't mean… you know… I'm sorry… err-" She went bright red.

Vegeta went back to her, arms around her waist as he nuzzled her neck briefly and whispered to her ear, "Come on, Onna, the girl doesn't seemed upset, more like she enjoyed the show, right?" he asked over Bulma's shoulder. He didn't look the least  bit repentant. "Now be a good hostess and show her to the door… but make it quick, ok? I want to finish this…" He said as he thrust slightly against her backside and let her go.

Fifteen minutes later found Bulma waving good-bye at the rapidly retreating form of her new friend. She had lent the other woman one of her capsule vehicles so that she didn't have to navigate the forest in the dark seeing as Sam wouldn't let her accompany her back to CC saying that she had already interrupted enough. Bulma had been very embarrassed by the whole situation, but Sam had reassured her that she was not offended, that it was good to see a couple who did not fear to openly argue about their problems and who could then make up without second thoughts. Well, being scared of arguing with each other is most assuredly not our problem...

Looking back Bulma could clearly see that it all had been a very well timed act to cover up their fight - that had been real, alright! - but with no feelings or even passion behind it. It had all been for Sam's benefit up to that last thrust against her rear end which had had no more meaning other than being the topping to their performance tonight. She had to admit, though, that that little detail had bothered her because, act or not, his advances always managed to get her all worked up but he didn't seem affected in the least. There hadn't been the slightest of bulges under those gi pants.

Anyway, she could see how it had been necessary, and, considering he was the one to start the fight unnecessarily, the least he could do was cover it up. By now she had calmed herself enough to face him again, despite how things had gone, this night had brought at very least one good thing: she'd finally have an opportunity to talk to him, though now she had even more questions to ask him; his behavior that night had aroused quite a number of them, indeed.

So, with what would probably be a long and trying conversation up ahead she entered back and looked around the first floor for him. She finally spotted his darkened figure in the porch. She approached him. He was facing the lake, with his back to her and his arms crossed over his chest. There wasn't any indication that he'd even heard her go out to the balcony with him. She knew that their fight had been left unfinished and wasn't sure how to end it without having to resort to screaming her head off. After a while of the two of them out there in complete silence he finally turned to her.

"We made a deal. I gave you my word that I'd help you with this plan of yours to get the weakling back and I'm not going to back down from that no matter what my opinion of said of plan... or of you might be. Have no worry, however, that that might influence my performance, as you've seen tonight." With that said he moved as if to go back into the house. Conversation clearly finished in his mind. Bulma wasn't having any of that, though. So she put herself in his path, blocking his exit. That hadn't been, by far, all the explanation she wanted.

He looked down at her as she stood in front of him. The annoyance clearly visible in the frown that marred his features. "What now, Onna? Wasn't that what you wanted to know? Why I had come tonight?"

"That's not the ONLY thing I wanted to talk about. But anyways, one thing at a time, I guess. Let's see if I understand this: what you're telling me is that since we have a deal you're gonna stick to it no matter what; even if you hated my guts you'd still put on the act and kiss me and… well, whatever it is we have to do, is that right? And nobody will notice." She said, blushing slightly at the last part as it appeared in her mind for the first time what they may end up doing together for the sake of the plan.

"That's exactly what I'm saying. Believe me, I've done 'whatever', as you put it, with far more disgusting creatures for far less amusing objectives than this. It won't be a problem."

"No, Vegeta, stop it. You don't understand. You're trying to reassure me that you'll be able to do it; I don't have a doubt about it. The problem is that 'I''ll know that you're faking, 'I''ll know that you hate me and that's not acceptable. I can't do this with you knowing that you can't stand to be in the same room as me."

"Well, Onna. If my attitude is not acceptable and I'm not what you want for this you can always go and ask somebody else… Too bad that Kakarot is already married and won't do for this, right?" His voice had gone from bored and annoyed to pure ice and his face was now a total blank.

Shit! was all that came to mind at his words. Seemed that they'd have to patch that little problem before anything else could be approached. "Okay Vegeta, let's clear this up, ok? From what you told me that day I think it's safe to assume that what angered you so much was my last comment about my training. As I've said already tonight, I know that that particular comment was way out of place and totally untrue. I want to apologize for saying that. You've been a great sensei and Son-kun probably wouldn't be half as good. It was awful of me to compare you to him knowing how much you hate him and the fact that… well… that he was able to turn super-saiyan and defeat Frieza when you couldn't – Wait, let me finish, I'm not trying to mock you or anything. What I've just said it's the truth and you know it, and since then you've been training a lot to be better than him and you probably will, in time, considering how determined you are. I never meant to say that he was better than you in any aspect – as a matter of fact I think you are way better than he could ever be at training - but I knew that it is a sore subject and that I'd hit a nerve with that comment, even if it was not true. I'm sorry."

He looked blankly at her and briefly nodded, as if saying he'd heard what she had just said. She waited expectantly for him to say something but after a while she concluded that that was all he was going to do. So, he had acknowledged her apology, nothing more. She hadn't been expecting him to forgive her, either. For one, he wasn't known for his forgiving nature, on the contrary, he was prone to holding grudges. On the other hand, she was fairly sure that words didn't mean much to him, specially not rehearsed ones like these, so she guessed that if he ever forgave her for this it'd take time. For now, him having listened to what she had to say would have to be enough.

This out of the way she went back to the topic at hand. "Ok, now about what I was telling you… it's not that I think you're not doing well or that I'd like someone else to be helping me in your place, it's just that… ummm… how to explain it… you seem to have no problem at all to pretend to be… my boyfriend no matter what you really think of me or what I think of you. You just do what is needed to make it look real, with no thoughts to feelings or anything else. I can't do that. We may be faking, but we're faking something very intimate and that holds a lot of meaning for me. I take my relationships very seriously and while in this case there is no need for me to be so very involved, I still need to put my heart into it at some level. I can't dismiss the fact that you hate me or that you'd sooner be doing anything else than having to stand me and pretend to be happily in love with you. Do you understand?" She knew it wasn't likely, he wasn't very well versed into this; he had no problem putting people's opinion behind him and doing what he needed to.

"No Onna, you're not making sense. You want me to like you? Because if that's the case you should have thought about it before you even asked me. You knew then as well as you do now that I don't like you or your species and that if I'm still  on this mud ball is because of my trying and to defeat Kakarot after I reach SS. I'm sure you don't need a reminder of what I think of ningens in general and you in particular."

"No Vegeta, there's no need for that, let's keep it civil, 'k?" she said through tightly clenched teeth to try and do just that instead of setting off one of their fights. After a few moments and somewhat calmer she continued. "I don't expect you to 'like' me, Vegeta. I just don't want you to dislike me. No, wait! That leaves you indifferent to me – nor like me nor dislike me – and that's not it, either… I know that you don't like humans but I'm sure that you've met humans that are more… bearable than others. Look Vegeta, I had always had the impression that while you didn't think greatly about my species, you didn't mind my company too much, in fact, a couple weeks ago I would have said that you kind of enjoyed our 'fights'. I gotta admit that I enjoy them, too, there's not many people with the guts to stand up to me and able to give as much as they get, and I'm pretty sure that the same happens to you, doesn't it? You see, I don't mind us fighting, I don't mind your standoffish attitude – which does not mean that I like it or that I'm going to bitch about it any less – that's how we interact with each other, and that's fine – more or less – I just want you to go back to that, not to hate me and ignore me and avoid me like that plague like you've been doing these past days."

Bulma looked pleadingly at him. It seemed that she'd given up on trying to explain why she needed this and decided to concentrate on what she needed. In his opinion she was making a mountain out of a rather stupid problem – which he didn't understand in the first place – and was getting very fed up with this conversation so he decided to cut straight to the point and finish as soon as possible. "Ok, Onna, let's see, I don't hate as you seem to think, and yes, I enjoy our verbal lashings. But even if you are slightly more bearable than most ningens, that doesn't mean that I enjoy your company for prolonged periods of time or that I won't ignore you when I'm not in the mood to put up with you. Onna, the discussion from the other day hasn't changed my opinion about you too much, you know? So if you were ok with how things were before that, you should be ok with how things are now."

He was getting frustrated with the conversation and wanted and end to it, she could tell. And well, if he said that his opinion about her hadn't changed… she could believe him, he wouldn't lie to her just to avoid hurting her feelings, on the contrary, he was usually brutally honest about what he thought about other people with no regards to what they felt about it. Ok, that was what she had asked of him, in the first place, to go back to how things were… "Ok, if you say things haven't changed I'll believe you, that's all I wanted, thank you. Now, Vegeta, if you don't mind, what the hell possessed you to suddenly open up to Sam like that and come up with some story about alien technology and-"

"Stop. You want to discuss how things are with your plan, we'll do. Tomorrow over dinner like usual. It was your fault in the first place for bringing her here without telling me before or we could have talked about what to tell her beforehand. Now, I've cut my training enough today. Good night."

With that he turned around and went back to looking  over the lake in front of him like she had found him. She was ready to say something else, to pursue the conversation, but he had cut her off, already, and she guessed that with how things had been, with this out of the way they could talk about their 'background' together another day. As a matter of fact she hadn't thought about it before Sam had started asking questions so it was a good thing he had come up with something believable so quickly. They'd think about the little details tomorrow. So in the end she ended up muttering a soft "'Night" and went back to the house and headed to the stairs. It was late enough as it was and tomorrow she had work to do.

Half way up the stairs she turned back to the balcony. Despite his claiming to want to go back to training he was still there, perfectly still just as she'd left him. What could he be thinking out there? She figured that she'd never know, he wasn't bound to tell her, so she shrugged and went up the rest of the stairs and into her room.

She was asleep by the time her head hit the pillow.

Vegeta didn't even notice when she finally left, already lost in thought. As much as she usually forgot that he was an alien, he did as well. The last few days had been proof enough of that.

She thinks that I've been avoiding her because of her comment on Kakarot. Foolish Onna. Shows her how much she really knows me. To a comment like that I would have responded with anger and pride and words full of venom and meant to stab as painfully as possible. Probably with a side line or two about her uselessness and ugliness and how utterly annoying she was, so much so that even the puny earthling she had called her boyfriend had finally left her. No, that hadn't been what really got to me.

How dare she even suggest that I didn't take training seriously? Her training, my training... it doesn't make much of a difference in my mind, not when it comes to how seriously I plan them. This is all I have, the only thing that nobody can take from me from my people. Saiyans were people of honor and strength. We stood by our own, protected our pack and stayed loyal, always. I don't have a planet anymore, no pack and no one to call my own. Whatever honor I managed to keep from my time with the lizard is still at odds with my pride and my distrust of these people. So I devote my time to the only thing that has managed to keep me together during most of my life aside from my pride: my strength. To be strong, the strongest, to accomplish my goal, what my father always wanted for me, what my people looked at me for... and she dares belittle that.

For Saiyans there weren't many things that supposed more honor than to have someone else come and ask you to train them. It meant that they recognized your skill and your strength and wanted you to help them attain what you already had. I know she probably didn't think much of asking me to train her, I was the most practical option considering that we live together. Yet that didn't mean any less to me. It wasn't even questionable. If she wanted me to train her, I'd do it, no problem. Besides, even if her species doesn't put any importance on it, my people thought that it was everyone's right and obligation to train themselves to the peak of their power and skills. She had never trained even though she had spent half her life surrounded by fighters, it was high time that someone taught her a couple of things.

Sometimes, even when I can feel her weak ki, her strong will and the fieriness she shows makes me forget that her culture and mine are as far away from each another as our planets. Our argument in the GR was like a punch in the gut. A painful reminder of the fact that there's nobody else beside me to remember, that Kakarot is just an empty shell of a Saiyan, that he killed his brother and that I myself killed the only other that was left. Of course, if it weren't for how things have ended up, it probably was a good thing that somebody put and end to Raditz's life: it's not easy to be the weakest of the only three remaining members of a species, constantly mocked and ridiculed at the best of times. As for my actions... things were very fucked up then, our minds were very fucked up. It's amazing what dying and been given a second chance at life in a rather peaceful and secure environment can do to one's mind.

Vegeta shook his head at this. It wasn't the time to stroll down that too worn path of thought. He looked around himself. It was a beautiful setting the Onna had chosen to put their house in, he had to admit. The forest and the lake, so different from his own home planet, still managed to bring him a certain peace of mind, evoking some of the natural freedom and beauty that had been Vegeta-sei. They were deep enough into the forest that the city lights didn't block his view from the sky and the space and the only home he'd known for more than twenty years. He liked to look up at the stars and try to locate some of the places were he'd been in his life. Some nights he tried to drown out any thought process by concentrating on the task of making the astral maps he had in his head fit with the view of the space that this planet offered. Other nights, like tonight, he just let the thought that he didn't have to go back there if he didn't want to, soothe him into some sort of relaxation. Calm again he resumed his previous train of thought.

She and I are very different. The discussion the other day brought that fact clearly home. Our chat just now only managed to reafirm that. I spend a couple of days ignoring her and she comes back all hurt and stuff! Damn ningens and their frail sensitivities! And what's all this crap about me hating her? She makes a mountain out of nothing. So we had a fight, so I've spent the last days avoiding her… how does she jump from that to the conclusion that I hate her?

Besides, she uses that word far too easily. Hate is a powerful feeling, one that I've felt a lot during my life. She doesn't even know what real hate feels like. Nobody in this planet has done anything truly deserving of my hate, not even Kakarot despite everything he has done has earned my hate; sure, I resent him and I want to defeat him and kill him as slowly as possible and then I'll probably send this goddamn mud ball to the next dimension and be done with it, but I don't truly hate him. And she asks me not to hate her.

She's not that bad. For being a ningen, that is. I don't have anything good to say about any of her species: they're weak, too stupid to even realize that they're surrounded by a well organized civilization conformed by the rest of the inhabitants of the universe and so full of themselves that they think they're the only 'intelligent' life that exists. They depend too much on technology, fight between themselves and keep on wasting their resources and destroying their planet. All in all, the perfect race for Frieza to send someone like me to annihilate and give some good use to this planet. She, at the very least has some spirit in her and can say that she has a couple of brain cells together. I can count on the fingers of a hand all the people here about whom I can say that.

She has provided me with food, a place to live and training facilities – of course, me staying here and becoming stronger also benefits her, but at least she had the common sense to realize that and the guts to do something about it. I think that she may be someone I could come to respect, in time. Because even if I don't understand many of the things she does and her motivations or some of the concepts her society is based on, I can see her worthiness as an individual. I've traveled a lot and met a lot of different races, I'm used to not understanding people's motivations and to have to learn to adapt somewhat to other cultures and I've learned to set some of these differences apart to be able to recognize those who could be worthy of my respect and even admiration, in some cases.

But that may be in time. As I told the weakling, I truly believe that she needs to grow up and mature. Then she might become a truly outstanding member of her society. For now she is not much more than an annoyance to me. She doubts herself and doubts the rest of us, which is probably why she was so upset about me avoiding her and hating her and that also means that she is very dependable of the people she surrounds herself with. I personally don't see how that could be any good to her, but the people in this planet seem to think that it's good to depend on 'friends', another term that they seem to use very easily. Then again, they use many terms easily, many emotions too, and at the same time they are rather hard pressed to use other ones. They have some stupid taboos that I don't understand, either. What was all the problem with her having sex with me or with us pretending and parading in front of the weakling? She wasn't even able to say the word 'sex', and even thinking about it she ended up blushing! They make friends with people after five minutes of meeting them, hate each other because of some stupid arguments and find the love of their lives at first sight, and yet, when it comes to sex, they have so many problems with having it with someone based in looks alone or mutual benefit.

I don't think I'll ever understand ningens!

Well, certainly not tonight, and I'm not in the state of mind to do any useful training, so I might go grab some hours of sleep and start in the morning. Staying out here and thinking about confusing races will surely do me no good.

With that he floated out of the porch and circled the house to finally enter his room through the window and call it a night.

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Well, this is chapter five complete. As I said it was not finished the first time I posted it, and now I've added that little part of Bulma and Sam talking through lunch time. I'm not sure if it was worth the repost of the chapter for this but anyway, here it is. Hope you like the finished thing.

First of all, I'm very sorry for the huge delay, but I already warned you all that this could happen. Anyways, I'm very thankful to the people that lastly have been sending me comments encouraging me to keep working and get this chapter out. And thank you too to all of you who had reviewed.

Lastly I just wanted to say that I hope that this chapter doesn't disappoint anyone. I think some of you expected to see some more 'action' and while there a couple  of scenes with a rather sexual tint to them, the main thing in this chapter has been the… ummm… psychological crap, you could say. That's to be expected. I just wanted to warn you. While there'll be a healthy dose of lime and lemons through all the fic, there will be a lot of insight in the characters and how I see them, thus the title of the fic.

Tell me what do you think of the fic so far, what do you think about my trying at a piece from Vegeta's mind like the last part? Does it sound OOC? I hope I'll hear from you and till the next update. See ya!


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